ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN AMERICA. 



293 



special interest in this museum would take us far beyond our 

 limits. Among the collections are magnificent series from the 

 mounds of Ohio and the stone graves of Tennessee; complete al- 

 tars of baked clay from Ohio " altar mounds " ; Kentucky cavern 

 finds ; interesting series from the caverns of southern California, 

 comprising perishable objects seldom preserved, such as a feather 

 head-dress, basketry, wooden objects, and a wonderful lot of bone 

 whistles found in a single basket ; Flint's interesting gatherings 

 from Nicaragua ; collections from the old cities of Yucatan ; the 

 Agassiz collection from ancient Peruvian graves ; the rich yield 

 from the Madisonville cemetery : Wyman's collection from the 

 fresh-water shell-heaps of the St. John's River, Fla. ; and the 

 famous Abbott collection from New Jersey, the basis of Dr. Ab- 

 bott's paper, The Stone Age in New Jersey. Two other series 

 deserve especial mention the one of specimens from Honduras, 

 some of the pottery in which is exceedingly interesting as show- 

 ing a field for exploration scarcely known to our archaeologists. 

 Prof. Putnam has made arrangements with the Government of 

 Honduras whereby the museum has the exclusive right of ar- 

 chaeological exploration in that country for a term of ten years. 

 Mr. Saville, the museum as- 

 sistant, is now in that field. 

 Very important is the great 

 collection of American " pa- 

 lseoliths." Here are Dr. Ab- 

 bott's argillite implements 

 from the Trenton gravels, 

 and the skulls from the 

 same locality ; Miss Bab- 

 bitt's quartzite flakes and 

 rude implements from the 

 Minnesota drift deposits ; 

 and the Ohio, Indiana, and 

 Delaware specimens from 

 post-glacial or glacial de- 

 posits. Nowhere else is there 

 any such an exhibit of these 

 rude, early types, which 

 have caused so much bitter 

 discussion. We have spoken 

 only of American collec- 

 tions, but there are also in 



this museum series illustrative of European archaeology, fine 

 specimens from the South Seas, and a Semitic museum, which 

 deserve more than a passing reference. The museum has pub- 

 lished annual reports for twenty-four years ; some of them have 



Dr. D. G. Brinton. 



