ex XX GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



The Proceedings of the Davenport (Iowa) Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Vol. I., covering the period from 1867 to 1876, is a publica- 

 tion worthy of the highest praise. The zeal of the members of the so- 

 ciety, and the generosity of its lady friends, are alike commendable. 

 The archaeological contributions relate principally to Ohio mounds ; 

 and the most noteworthy feature of their relics is the frequency of 

 copper celts, some of which are found wrapped in a coarse cloth. 



The archaeology of Missouri is discussed in the third volume of 

 the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences at St. Louis. 



In the American Naturalist for February, Dr. C. C. Abbott defends 

 the existence of a palaeolithic and a neolithic age in New Jersey. 

 The shell-heaps are traced back to a period 6000 years before Co- 

 lumbus. 



Cave explorations have been made in Pennsylvania by Professor 

 Haldemann and Professor Baird. They have yielded no evidence 

 of the existence of man beneath the stalagmite. Bone implements 

 and fine stone implements have been discovered, and some slight in- 

 dications of cannibalism. 



The mound-builders have been discussed in a pamphlet by Mr. 

 G. S. B. Hempstead, of Portsmouth, Ohio ; in contributions to the 

 Scientijic Monthly of Toledo, by Mr. Charles Whittlesey ; and in a 

 paper read by Hon. Lewis H, Morgan before the National Academy, 

 in April, and published in the North American Review for July. 

 The last-named memoir is worthy of the cautious and exhaustive 

 pen of our countryman. " The mounds are considered as dwelling 

 sites of ' village Indians.' The embankments, if reformed, would re- 

 semble a railway grade with a summit platform. These were the 

 sites of the houses. The buildings were of timber, on the summit 

 of the embankments, thus making a continuous, sloping rampart 

 twenty feet high." Mr, Morgan reproduced in drawings the ground- 

 plan of the structure, and an ideal reconstruction of a mound-build- 

 ers' village, 



Mr, Charles M. Wallace, of Richmond, Virginia, contributes to 8il- 

 liman's Journal^ No, HI., 1876, an article upon flint implements which 

 the author claims to have found in the stratified drift in the vicinity 

 of that city. Whether they are of human origin or not, they are use- 

 ful as throwing light upon similar objects found in other places. 



The subject of pigmy graves in Tennessee and Kentucky is re- 

 vived in our popular journals, and we are informed that many intel- 

 ligent persons still believe in the former existence of such a race. 

 The whole matter is set at rest, however, by the investigations of 

 Jones, Clarke, Haskins, and Troost, a review of whose labors will be 

 found in Harper'^ s Magazine for December, 1876, 



No, IV,,Vol. I,, of the Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of Science 

 contains the essay of Professor Jeifries Wyman upon the "Fresh- 

 water Shell-mounds of the St. John's River, Florida." The work of 



