On the homogeneity of fluids forming bedding‐parallel veins

A group of 400–500 m long, bedding‐parallel calcite veins are exposed in the central La Popa Basin of northeastern Mexico. These veins provide a unique opportunity to determine the kilometer‐scale fluid–rock system associated with bedding‐parallel vein formation, and to test for sampling bias in studies that often use one or two samples to constrain the characteristics of regional‐scale paleohydrogeological systems. We use fluid inclusion microthermometry in conjunction with measurements of δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios to constrain the vein‐forming fluid temperatures, compositions and sources, and compare these values along and between the veins to establish the homogeneity of the vein‐forming fluids and fluid–rock system. The δ¹³C values of the veins are close to those of the host rock, and average – 3.96‰ (PDB). The δ¹⁸O values of the veins are typically 1‰ lower than those of the host rocks, and average – 9.54‰ (PDB). Fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures average 137°C and inclusion salinities are all <6 wt% NaCl equivalent. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of the veins average 0.70731 and are substantially lower than the values expected for the host rock. Calculated fluid δ¹⁸O values range from 4 to 10‰ (SMOW). The isotopic and microthermometric data indicate the veins most likely formed at depths of 3–4 km when meteoric water mixed with upward migrating, warm basinal brines. Vein microstructures and field characteristics indicate they formed from multiple slip events that most likely were associated with transport of individual fluid pulses that migrated along bedding planes. The large‐scale homogeneity of vein geochemistry is remarkable and demonstrates that only one or two samples would be sufficient to accurately characterize the kilometer‐scale paleohydrogeological system for these veins.     

Linn Liuan/Llynn Llyw: The Wondrous Lake of the Historia Brittonum's de Mirabilibus Britanniae and Culhwch ac Olwen

The natural wonders listed in the folk history known as the Historia Brittonum include Lake Liuan/Lliwan, the site of which is now lost despite featuring in folktales and topographies and containing a dramatic tidal whirlpool/fountain. We identify this key early-medieval wonder as the Whirlyholes, now inactive features near Caerwent, South Wales.     

Socio-economic Dislocation and Inter-war Emigration to Canada and the United States: A Scottish Snapshot

During the 1920s emigration from Scotland exceeded the natural growth of population. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of relocation, the regional and occupational origins and destinations of the emigrants or their demographic profile. This article draws on the recently compiled Scottish Emigration Database to provide a quantitative snapshot of the circumstances of 18,512 passengers who embarked on the lower Clyde in the first four months of 1923. The first section explains the rationale, methodology and historiographical context of the database. Then, after outlining the economic, social and political climate in inter-war Scotland, the article investigates the extent to which decay, dislocation and disillusionment – or alternatively opportunity and ambition – provoked transatlantic emigration. Reference is made to local and regional issues within Scotland, notably in the urban-industrial central belt and the crofting communities of the Hebrides. Setting the Scottish experience within the wider framework of British emigration policy between the wars, it also evaluates the effectiveness of empire settlement legislation in recruiting and retaining settlers for Canada against the competing attractions of the United States.     

Skeletal age at death: an evaluation of the miles method of ageing

The accuracy of Miles' method of ageing individuals within a population, based upon an analysis of the rate of dental wear, was evaluated in a sample of 202 living Lengua Indians from the Chaco area of Paraguay. The preliterate and culturally isolated status of the Lengua provided a useful base for comparison with populations that are likely to be encountered by archaeologists. The independent age estimates from maxillae and mandibles of the same individuals were found to be highly correlated with each other and to the actual ages of those individuals (Spearman rank-correlation test maxillae r_s = 0·58, mandibles r_s = 0·95, medians of populations rank-sum R = 99·5 > 95). No significant differences (P > 0·05) were found between the mean ages of any of the Miles subgroups, as indicated by the t-test for paired comparisons. The present study provides evidence of the reliability of the Miles method of ageing archaeological populations on the basis of occlusal wear. These findings are evaluated in the light of the sources of error inherent in the Miles system of analysis.     

‘Unfortunate Objects’: London's Unmarried Mothers in the Eighteenth Century

Unmarried mothers in eighteenth‐century London captivated the public imagination in unprecedented ways. Using the petitions for admission into London's Foundling hospital, this article argues that unmarried mothers did not have to conform to a model of female sexual passivity, of ‘respectable illegitimacy’, in order to receive charitable relief in the eighteenth‐century metropolis. The governors of the Foundling Hospital could be indiscriminate in the petitions that they passed. This did not mean, however, that petitioners were unaware of how best to represent their case in their attempts to find a home for their child. But throughout the eighteenth century, ‘proper objects of charity’ included petitioners with many different stories to tell. These were determined by the concerns and questions of the Foundling Hospital's authorities and were not unproblematic representations of poor women's mental maps, but this piece emphasises that the circumstances of their lives rarely required embellishment to convince others of their necessity. Economic need rather than shame was the all‐important criterion in the admission of a child into the Foundling Hospital. Women's accounts of their lives provided overwhelming evidence that they, rather than the fathers of their babies, were the ‘unfortunate sex’, but they were neither hopeless nor without desire. The language of the petitions was intimately related to the everyday lives of London's poor. What framed most of the accounts presented by petitioners was not seduction, shame or secrecy but misfortune.     

Overcoming the Creswell–Foster divide in Australian strategy: the challenge for twenty-first century policy-makers

This article examines the continuing influence of the contending twentieth century schools of Creswellian continental defence and Fosterite expeditionary defence in Australian strategy. A context for analysis is developed through an examination of the contemporary globalised security environment which is marked by bifurcation into state-centric and multi-centric threats. The demands of this new security environment have led to the evolution of twenty-first century manifestations of the Creswell–Foster divide in the form of the defender-regionalist and the reformer-globalist schools of strategy. The article analyses how differences between these two schools, especially over the value of geography, have been exacerbated by the new dynamics of globalised security. In the future, however, overcoming the contemporary Creswell–Foster divide between the defender-regionalists and the reformer-globalists in Australian strategy is unlikely to occur in the exclusive arena of defence policy. Rather, what is required is the creation of an overarching national security strategy beginning with the establishment of an Australian Commission on Twenty-First Century National Security. Such a Commission could be modelled on the US Hart–Rudman Commission of 1999–2001 and be suitably adapted to Australian conditions. An Australian commission should be charged with producing a long-term report on holistic and ‘best practice’ security policy options for upholding and protecting Australia's vital national interests in the first quarter of the twenty-first century.