e shall have 1 h. 57 m. 55.1 s. as the duration of twilight.
But the real time of sunset must be computed when the sun has
descended about 50' below the horizon, at which point the sun's upper
limb coincides with the line, H O, of the horizon. This takes place 7
h. 16 m. 30.8 s. mean time. It is hoped the above will be a sufficient
answer to L.N. (See SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of Dec. 1, 1883, p. 346.)

B.W. H.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES.

The distinguished anthropologist M. De Quatrefages has recently spoken
before the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and we extract from his
discourse on "Fossil Man and Savages" some notes reported in the
_Journal d'Hygiene_: "It is in Oceanica and above all in Melanesia and
in Polynesia where I have looked for examples of savage races. I have
scarcely spoken of the Malays except to bring to the surface the
features which distinguish them among the ethnic groups which they at
times touch, and which in turn frequently mingle with them. I have
especially studied the Papuans and Negritos. The Papuans are an
exclusively Pelasgic race, that many anthropologists consider as
almost confined to New Guinea and the neighboring archipelago. But it
becomes more and more manifest that they have had also periods of
expansion and of dissemination.

"On one side they appear as conquerors in some islands of Micronesia;
on the other we have shown--M. Hamy and myself--that to them alone can
be assigned the skulls found in Easter Island and in New Zealand. They
have hence touched the east and south, the extremities of the maritime
world.

"The Negritos, scarcely known a few years ago, and to-day confounded
with the Papuans by some anthropologists, have spread to the west and
northwest.

"They have left unmistakable traces in Japan; we find them yet in the
Philippines and in many of the islands of the Malay archipelago; they
constitute the indigenous population of the Andaman Islands, in the
Gulf of Bengal. Indeed, they have formerly occupied a great part of
the two peninsulas of India, and I have elsewhere shown that we can
follow their steps to the foot of the Himalayas, and beyond the Indus
to Lake Zerah. I have only sketched here the history of this race,
whose representatives in the past have been the type of the Asiatic
pygmies of whom Pliny and Ctesias speak, and whose _creoles_ were
those Ethiopians, black and with smooth hair, who figure