92 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sands of miles is still preserved on the academy's grounds. The 

 other region archieologically explored by the academy is the local 



field immediately around 

 Davenport. In the inves- 

 tigations here some most 

 important facts regard- 

 ing mound construction 

 and burial have been se- 

 cured and curious and 

 valuable relics found. 

 Among these local relics 

 are skulls, objects of shell, 

 carved stone pipes, cop- 

 per axes wrapped in cloth 

 (the structure of which 

 has been preserved by 

 impregnation with salts 

 of copper produced by at- 

 mospheric action), and 

 stone tablets bearing in- 

 scriptions or pictorial de- 

 signs. None of these 

 relics have attracted so 

 much attention as two of 

 the stone pipes, called 

 from their shape "ele- 

 phant pipes," and the tab- 

 lets, which are three in 

 number, two of black 

 slate and one of lime- 



Fic. ;.-CuPPK,i AxLs WRAPPED IX Cluth. stone. About the authen- 



ticity of these five objects 

 a bitter controversy has waged. The matter first appeared within 

 the academy August 29, 1884, when attention was called to an 

 article by H. W. Henshaw in the Second Annual Report of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology. In this article the authenticity of the 

 elephant pipes was seriously impugned. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to look into the charge and meet it. A somewhat acri- 

 monious discussion, in which many took part, was conducted in 

 various periodicals. Mr. Charles E. Putnam, father of J. Duncan 

 Putnam, and president of the academy, prepared a vindication, 

 which was published as an independent pamphlet, and later re- 

 published with an appendix of congratulatory letters from various 

 archaeologists. While this is not the proper place for discussing 

 the authenticity of these specimens, it may not be out of place for" 

 the writer to say that to his judgment no substantial argument 



