NEWS OF THE COMPETITION A MISTAKE occurred in our last

week's issue ; and as it caused perplexity among our readers we offer our saddest apologies. We stated that the award would be announced in this week's Spectator. The closing date for entries, of course, was March 6th, and the final report will be published in the issue of March 14th. Mr. H. Revell Reynolds draws our attention to a very appro-

priate motto from Ovid's Metamorphoses :--

" Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus."

We present, from the entries that we have received, a small uncritical selection.

EPITAPHS ON AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS.

The so-called ape-man, whose fossilized skull was recently discovered at Taungs, South Africa, by Professor Raymond Dart.]

" Hero lieth one who in long vanished days Left his ape kindred in the forest ways, And unsuspecting let into his mind Those wolves of thought which have so torn mankind.

No language had he : dumb to death he went :

Long ages after to be- eloquent." MARGARET FREMLIN.

" Taungs Man, sweet youth, when his last breath he drew, Behind left heirs presumptive—not a few.

As Nature takes, so Nature ever gives : T. M. is dead, but in his heirs he lives." W. J.

" Not Ape, nor Man ; a sport born out of time, My lineage doubtful ; my descendants none ; My life was short, I died before my prime, Nor knew the Man that might have been my son. Oh distant kin, these bones with pity see ; Alive or dead, Earth had no place for me."

JOCELYN C. LEA.

" Stranger, behold, a once primaeval fact Whose skull alone has reached us still intact.

In London's world-famed-Gardens, bars divide Those who eat nuts without, from those inside.

The problem science seeks to know is how To know which side are his descendants now."

ARTHUR J. Willem.

" His friends all thought his flesh was most superior When eaten, as de rigueur not yet cold, And dumbly sighed Beneath a rough exterior

He had a heart of gold.' " " I walked erect, for so do all my kind, Superior to -the other breeds of earth ; My hands did intricate things that gave me mirth; And I had joy in strength ; yet knew a blind And aching need of power beyond my reach ;

And guessed, and-missed, and dreamed at night, of speech."

RT.-MA-RETIE JACKSON.

E. S.

" Africa quern genuit jacet hie Australopitheci Eflossam os capitis ; quale sit ambigitur.

Gans ea non superest ; specisminentits virilem Prorsus obit, aiunt ; cur tamen, ambigitur.

En tibi rem totem ; verum res tots quid ad to Pertineat, lector quisquis es, ambigitur."

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