Basing upon the measurements of about one hundred pieces of skulls and mandibles from several neolithic shell mounds in different parts of Japan and more than three hundreds of those from younger dated shell mounds and dwelling pits in Hokkaido, Kurile and Saghalin, the author classifies the prehistoric dogs into the following five kinds by the total skull length : X-155, 156-170, 171-185, 186-200 and 201-Xmm. The prehistoric dog races, Canis familiaris palustris, ladogensis, intermedius, inostranzewii and matris optimae, fall in the assigned classes respectively in the order. The dogs from neolithic shell mounds agree in more than 50% of the cases with the palustris, with a little more frequency with the ladogensis and rarely with the intermedius, while no trace of the inostranzewii and matris optimae is pointed out. A dog of the same size as the inostranzewii camel out sometimes from prehistoric sites in Asia, for instance in Anau, Mohenjo-Darn, Anyang *c, but such as matris optimae has sofar remained unknown. However, the latter is observed not seldom at the shell mounds on the coast of the Ochotk Sea.
Recently the author received with surprise a dog skull of such a size as that of the matris optimae. It was found at the shell mounds of Kamikawana in Tsukinokimachi, Shiba District, Miyagi Prefecture. This is suggested by its owner to be that of a japanese wolf, Canis hodophylax, but has a more broad upper face and jaw, shorter muzzle and shorter lower first molar too h, as the following table shows. It is well plausible, that the dog or its nearest ancestor should have been imported over the Tsugaru channel from Hokkaido.
In the total length of the skull, the matris optimae is to be compared with the asiatic wolves, Canis pallipes and hodophylax, the intermedius with the african jackal, C. lupaster, the ladogensis with the american coyote, C. latrans and the palustris with the asiatic jackal, C. aureus. These dog races are characterized in general by the broadness of the face and the shortness of the muzzle for the size of the head. Most striking difference between the dogs and wolves is the weakness of the teeth in the former. But things appear to be quite different with the matris optimae and the Canis variabilis Pei from the Sinanthropus site. The length of the lower first molar tooth of the C. variabilis is over 25mm in a fourth and 21-24mm in three fourth of the cases. While that of the matris optimae amounts to 20-24mm and that of the C. hodophylax to 25mm or more. A few portion of the examined mandibles of the lower pleistocen wolf is of the same size as the inostranzewii. The author supposes that the Canis variabilis inhabited at that time in a large area in southern Asia and afterwards is differentiated to the Canis pallipes, hodophylax, fam. matris optimae and fam. inostranzewii. Therefor the living wolf kinds have nothing to do with the ancestral forms of the prehistoric dog races.

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Since VAN TIEGHEM found bacteria in fossils of plants in the year of 1879, many students found various bacteria of geological ages. The author also tried last year a bacteriological research of the Lower Pleistocene deposit of Nishiyagi beach in the suburbs of Akashi City. R. Katsunuma once found a sporforming Bacillus in Yoshiko shellmound with Jomonpottery. The author tried detailed bacteriological researches in various layers in three neolithic shelImounds with Jomonpottery in Kanto district, Okadaira in Ibaragi, Ubayama in Chiba Pref. and Kyu-Honmaru in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Some completely closed shells and mud were sampled from various layers by aseptic method, and aerobic bacteria were cultivated with normal agar medium (pH 7.0), anaerobic with glucose blood agar and both aerobic and anaerobic with thioglycolacidmedium. The species of bacteria were 52, and except for a few curious species the rest were identified to be common soil bacteria ; 14 Micrococcen, 1 Staplylococcus, 1 Gaffkya, 1 Aerobacter, 8 Achremobacters, 1 Flavobacterium, 24 Bacillen and 2 Clostridia. But the numbers of bacteria in shells are obscure except for two found in the Imperial Palace, that is the one 235 and the other 330. The more mud in completely closed shells increases in amount, the more numbers of bacteria increase. Anaerobic bacteria were all facultative. In shellmound bacteria live even in the depth of 370cm, and the species do not vary by the depth of the soil. However hard the shells are closed, some quantity of mud was found only in relatively shallower part. Ubayama shellmound is too shallow to research the bacteria in the shell, and Kyu-Honmaru had been partly put out of order. Even if new species were found in Ubayama and Kyu-Honmaru, we could not define them those of the neolithic age. Neither in the mud and shells of the scarcely mudded shell layer of Okadaira A Point, nor in the shells of the underlying mud containing shell layer, there could be found any bacteria. Those shells which contained no bactrtia did not contain much mud either. According to the stated fact, the author concluded that no sporforming bacteria of neolithic age could survive in Japan.

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Good amount of bony remains, human skeletons, animal bones, teeth and horns of deer including many kinds of artefacts made of them have been found from prehistoric sites in Japan. But they were mostly found in coastal shellmounds and rarely in inland refuse deposits. Two possible cases are regarded as the reason for the latter case ; (1) the absence of bony substances from prehistoric times, (2) the chemical decay of them which once existed at the sites. If the case (1) is true, it concerns with important cultural characteristics of the prehistoric people who lived at the site. The author measured pH, exchangable acidity and exchangable calcium of the soil sampled at Ubayama shellmound in Chiba Pref. and Kitami refuse deposit in Tokyo City, 1% citric acid soluble phosphor content of the soil from the latter site and pH of other two shellmounds and other two refuse deposits. There were plenty findings of bony remains at those shellmounds but none at all at those refuse deposits. The range of pH of these shellmounds are 7.66-8, 47 and that of those refuse deposits are 5, 45-6, 38, exchangable acidity (DAIKUBAAR' S acidity) are 1vs 1-8 and exchangable calcium are over 500 vs 40-200. The phosphor contents of Kitami site were, as reported previously (in this Journal Vol. 61, No. 1), 10-50 times higher in the soil accumulated on the dwelling pits and their closely adjacent parts than the soil outside of them. One of the several burial mounds of later times which locates 300m apart from the mentioned prehistoric site, yielded no skeletal remains at all except for some thin enamel plates of teeth. Besides those experimental data, it is a noteworthy fact that the bony substances which consist of apatite microcrystals, ossein and other organic substances, are chemically resistant against alkaline solution but soluble in acidic solution, and the chemical resistancy of tooth enamel is superior to that of bone. According to those exper imental and theoretical data, the author conclude as follows; (1) The shellmounds should avail good preservation of bony substances because of their alkaline reaction resulting from their plenty accumulation of calciumcarbonate. (2) In the refuse deposits, on the contray, will be neccessary to consider the probability that the bony substances which once existed were decayed by the acidic permiated water and the decompoing action of siol microorganisms. The soil of Japann which shows acidic reaction by ca. 95% of the whole teritory is considered to prevent the preservation of bony substances in it. (3) Both refuse deposit and shellmound seem to have the similar significance in their fomation at least at the sites studied.

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During the last fifty years, at least fifty-five cases presumably including a considerable number of prehistoric canoes have been reported from various parts of Japan. The woods used, however, are mostly left undescribed, only several examples being anatomically identified by the preceding authors. A misconception that all ships traditionally mentioned in some ancient writings are made of Cinnamomwn Camphora is prevailing among some archaeologists and historians, and by the fact that most of canoes hitherto excavated and studied are accidentally made of this wood they are likely to strengthen their preconception. The present study on some thirty examples from twenty-five different localities reveals that they show a rich diversity, i. e., Torreya nucifera (16 Nos, 1-3, 18, 19, 20, 23 Nos. 1-3, 28), Pinus densiflora (2, 27), P. Thunbergii (8, 14), Abies firma (15), Cryptomeria japonica (3, 4, 10, 31, 38, 39 Nos. 1, 2), Sciadopitys verticillata (48), Juglans Sieboldiana (49), Castanea crenata (9, 26 No. 2), Aphananthe aspera (26 No. 1), Ulmns japonica (32), Cinnamomum Camphora (6, 21, 26), and Kalopanax pictum (1). Among fifteen examples of oars studied, eleven are Cephalotaxus drupacea, two, Torreya nucifera, one, Quercus acutissima and one, an indeterminable ring-porous wood. Considering from the phytogeographical view point, the majority of them indicates the possibilities that they had been made and used in the localities where they were excavated. (Contributions from the Research Institute for Natural Resources, Tokyo, No. 390)

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The small excavation of the Shimmeiyama Site, a prehistoric one in Musashi, yielded 376 potsherds and 4 stone artefacts. Potsherds were of the Early Jomon type, and three patterns of design were identified among them except for those with no decoration ; twisted cord patterns, cord patterns proper and incised patterns. Stone implements are all polished. Chronological situation of the site is not yet determined.

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1) We can classify the recent far-east and south-east Asiatics into two groups by the degrees of their cranial height (Basion-bregma height : B. B. H.), the high B. B. H.-group and the low one. The B. B. H. of these races is found becoming lower gradually from the far-east Asiatics to the south-east Asiatics in the following order :the Japanese, the Koreans, the north Chinese, the central Chinese, the French-Indo-Chinese, the Siamese, the Burmese and the Indonesian. But the B. B. H. of these races is comparatively high.
On the other hand, the races such as the Aleut, the Mongolians, all races in India, the Wedda, the Andamanese, who live in the surrounding areas have the lower B. B. H., compared with those live in above mentioned high B. B. H.-group areas, and they belong to the lowest B. B. H.-group in the world.
2) On the ancient far-east Asiatics the literatures show as follows: the ancesters of the north Chinese lived along the Huang-ho since B.C., and in the north part of this area the ancesters of the Mongolian, and in the east-north part the proto-Asiatics. In the souther part, souther central China, the proto south races lived, and in the far south area the Wedda-type races. As a whole, it can be suggested that the north Chinese had spread radially to all directions except north with their mighty spreading forces and pressure.
3) From the results of the investigetion into bones of the ancient far-east Asiatitcs, we can say that the B. B. H. of these races is high, and then the recent north Chinese is constitutionaly almost equal to the ancient one, and the latter was found as the proto-Chinese.
4) I come to the conclusion, that the far-east and south-east Asiatics may be able to be classified into two groups: One is high B. B. H.-group, and the other is low one. The former is surrounded by the latter geographically. As a whole, I hope to determine that the central race of the high B. B. H.group is the north Chinese, and all the, reces which originated from this race have the common character constitutionally to belong to the high B. B. H.-group.

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