ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN AMERICA. 



33 



Prof. Mason particularly wishes to emphasize is the way in which 

 primitive man works. Thus he is not content with securing the 

 various fire-making machines, but he must have Mr. Hough dem- 

 onstrate their use by actually making fire with them. So he has 

 encouraged Mr. Maguire to illustrate how stone tools were made 

 by making them. One is astounded by the vast collections in 

 this museum there is a bewildering wealth of material. All 

 that is received is divided into three series the smallest is dis- 

 played in cases ; the second, much larger and wonderfully rich, 

 is placed in drawers for students to use ; the third is stored away 

 for purposes of exchange. The museum publishes its own Trans- 

 actions, in which many valuable monographs appear. 



The Curator of Prehistoric Anthropology of the Smithsonian 

 Institution is the Hon. Thomas Wilson, who at one time repre- 

 sented our Government in Europe. While there he had unusual 

 opportunities for field-work in the famous localities, for study of 

 museums, and for acquaintance with the workers. He has charge 

 of a vast mass of material. Here are surface-found specimens 

 from every State in the Union ; the beautiful objects from the 

 mounds which supplied the 

 illustrations for Holmes's 

 Art in Shell ; the famous 

 copper plates from the Eto- 

 wah mounds ; the Perkins 

 collection of copper imple- 

 ments from Wisconsin ; the 

 Latimer collection of stone 

 implements from Porto Rico ; 

 good series from Mexico, Yu- 

 catan, and Central America. 

 Here, too, are the results of 

 Dr. Cyrus Thomas's mound 

 explorations and Warren K. 

 Moorehead's deposit. A large 

 space is devoted to Mr. Min- 

 deleff's wonderfully natural 

 and interesting miniature re- 

 productions of the pueblos 

 of New Mexico. There is, in 

 fact, such a wealth of mate- 

 rial that one is confused by 



its very abundance. Mr. Wilson has done a very wise and in- 

 structive thing in arranging "synoptical cases." These are table- 

 cases, placed in two groups, one on each side of the entrance-door. 

 In one is given, by a few carefully selected, carefully labeled, and 

 illustratedly explained specimens, a synopsis of the prehistoric 



Mrs. Zelia Nuttall. 



