CHAPTER XL 



ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



PERHAPS we can help our students in this most 

 interesting department in no better way than by pre- 

 senting to them the following letter from our specialist, 

 Mr. Hilborn T. Cresson, of Philadelphia : 



From what I can learn upon the subject, many of our A. A. 

 chapters have collections of ethnological and archseological speci- 

 mens, such as bones from the shell-heaps and mounds, stone 

 arrow-points from the graves of Tennessee, and surface 'finds,' 

 stone axes, pipes, pottery, etc. It would certainly be a great 

 source of satisfaction, if all the chapters of the A. A. throughout 

 North and South America would unite in preserving archaeolog- 

 ical specimens, especially those of Tennessee, throughout the val- 

 ley of the Mississippi, Florida in fact, all our western and southern 

 States. Specimens collected should be carefully labeled with 

 precise details as to where found, whether in aboriginal mounds, 

 cemeteries, graves, or surface of ground ; by whom found and 

 date of finding ; occupation of person finding same, etc. (this last 

 question indicates whether it be a professional dealer, picker, 

 farmer, school-boy, or A. A. member ; specimens obtained by the 

 three last-named being much more reliable, we think, than those 

 handled by the two former especially if the object be of impor- 

 tance and rarity). Archaeological specimens that are rough and 

 uncouth in appearance and rudely made, should not be thrown 

 aside for this reason. They are of great value, especially if from 

 a mound or cemetery ; nor should the smallest fragment of pottery 

 be thrown aside. They' all help to unravel the mystery about 

 those beings who made them and have long since crumbled into 

 dust. Photographs (those made by members preferred} of rare 

 specimens in private collections are very valuable, if minute details 

 in regard to them be preserved very frequently upon the decease 

 of their owner they are scattered to the four winds by the auction- 

 eer's hammer, never to be reunited. They are in this case of 

 little value for scientific study ; the photographs, however, show 

 them as they were before separation. 



