304 proceedings: anthropological society 



from the category of "coral rock" and the hving reef reduced to a sub- 

 ordinate ratio as a builder of limestone. (2) Drew's unfortunately 

 incompleted studies of the distribution of denitrifying bacteria have 

 shown them to be most prevalent in the shoal-waters of the tropics. 

 They therefore conform to the principles enunciated by Murray for the 

 distribution of lime secreting organisms. By combining the results of 

 Drew and Murray, the deduction seems warranted that great limestone 

 formations, whether they be composed of organic or of chemically pre- 

 cipitated calcium carbonate, were laid down in waters of which at least 

 the surface temperatures were warm, if not actually tropical. 



Frank L. Hess, Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 466th regular meeting of the Anthropological Society of Washing- 

 ton was held in the National Museum February 18, 1913, the President, 

 George R. Stetson in the chair. 



Professor W. H. Holmes read a paper on: Agricultural implements of 

 the mound-builders. The rich alluvial prairie of the middle Mississippi 

 valley is especially suited to the practice of agriculture, and here are 

 found large numbers of skillfully made flint blades of large size adapted 

 to hafting as hoes and showing unmistakable evidence of long usage 

 in operations that gave the edge a high degree of polish. They are made 

 of grayish flint or chert, which occurs in the form of flattish nodules 

 especially in southern Illinois. These nodules were readily shaped by 

 fracture with stone hammers, and vast numbers were worked up by 

 the mound-building tribes. The processes of manufacture were demon- 

 strated by the speaker and it was shown with what ease and rapidity the 

 blades could be made. 



It was also shown by examples obtained from the Missouri river tribes 

 that hoes made of scapulae of the buffalo were in use in very recent 

 times and that the hoes found by excavation in ancient sites near Omaha 

 correspond to these recent Indian forms in shape, manner of hafting, 

 and surface polish, and that both display, altho in bone, precisely the 

 same kind of polish and markings as the similarly shaped hoes of flint. 

 It was suggested that these flint hoes were modeled after scapular hoes, 

 since these were in general used by the tribes and have doubtless been 

 in use from very early times among all the tribes advanced to the seden- 

 tary agricultural stage of culture. 



With regard to questions of the antiquity of the stone and bone hoes 

 which have recently been raised, it was suggested that since the buffalo 

 was a comparatively recent arrival in the Mississippi valley, a culture 

 in which the bones of buffalo are represented must be younger, not older, 

 than that of the mound-builders, since no traces or representations of 

 the buffalo are found within the older Indian mounds. 



This paper was briefly discussed, Mr. Stetson read some notes con- 

 cerning stone articles recently found in Britain, and Professor Holmes 

 commented thereon and then read a paper on the Scope and relationship 



