84 THREE KINGDOMS. 



referred to. Let our chapters get up entertainments and form a 

 fund for their purchase and presentation. Old and young should 

 respond cheerfully to this suggestion. In this way aboriginal 

 monuments that are fast disappearing before the onward march of 

 civilization can be preserved, at least until a scientific examination 

 can be made of their contents. 



Some day, I hope, the Agassiz Association Museum will be 

 formed, and among its various departments may that of ethnology 

 and archaeology be pushed W 7 ith vigor. If I am not misinformed 

 you have already dreamed of this. Assuredly some well-filled 

 pockets will aid the great work that you are directing. 



More especially since the publication of The Swiss Cross do 

 inquiries reach me from the Western States and South America. 

 Many of these are from persons who seem deeply interested in 

 early man, and his descendants who occupy our reservations, still 

 wander over certain districts of the far north, or dwell in the for- 

 ests of South America. Quite frequently I have packages forward- 

 ed to me from elderly persons for classification and examination. 

 In many cases the specimens are supposed to have been found 

 under circumstances that verge on the marvelous. These are 

 generally purchases from unreliable dealers in antiquities, and are 

 not ' finds ' made by themselves ; hence they are apt to prove 

 counterfeits, which at the present time are made in large quantities 

 throughout the Western and Middle States. I deem it necessary 

 to warn all our chapters against notorious gangs of counterfeiters 

 (of mound specimens) that exist in Ohio, others in Illinois and 

 Kentucky, and last, but not least, against those clumsy 'antiques' 

 that emanate from the marble yards of Philadelphia. 



