1884. 63 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 



These instances illustrated the far-reaching influences of modern 

 commerce in the most remote regions of the earth, and also the in- 

 creasing difficulty in determining the genuine character of supposed 

 aboriginal work in jade, chalcedony, etc. 



The President regretted that the history of the silver images ex- 

 hibited by Mr. KuNZ was not known, as they were probably of con- 

 siderable antiquity. 



They were imitations of two species of South American animals, 

 one the Lhnna, the other the Vicuna ; the fibre of the wool was very 

 truthfully represented, and great freedom and variety were shown in 

 the general work. Dr. F. N. OxiS formerly had some silver images of 

 great interest brought from Peru, and now in the Blackmore Museum 

 at Salisbury, England, to which he had presented them. In Colombia 

 and on the Isthmus, Chiriqui, etc., the natives had made articles of 

 a similar kind. Seiior Uricochea, a gentleman who lived many 

 years at Santa Fe de Bogota, had told him that a class of profes- 

 sional gravediggers and treasure-hunters existed there, who employed 

 gangs of Indians in their work, and he had seen twenty-five pounds 

 of gold images melted up to pay these employees. Some of the arti- 

 cles from Chiriqui had been treated by a process of pickling, the alloy 

 of gold and silver having been digested in a solution and afterward 

 polished. 



As to the arrow-heads, there are still some tribes of Indians at the 

 West who chip their arrow-points. 



In Oregon he had formerly visited tribes who were armed only with 

 beautiful bows and arrows, the shafts being constructed of reeds and 

 the points of obsidian. The latter were very slender, so that they 

 were broken and destroyed by a single use. Gen. Fremont had ob- 

 tained some beautiful examples of these, and had two of them made 

 to be worn as ear-pendants by his wife. These were made without a 

 blow, being chipped by crimping the obsidian against a piece of soft 

 material, either metal or wood, held in the hand. Little force, but 

 much skill and experience, were required in this manufacture. 



The President exhibited a beautiful specimen of grouped crystals 

 of argentite, from the Batopilas mine, Mexico. 



Mr. KUNZ stated, in regard to the silver images, thatk, two years 

 ago, five thousand dollars worth of such articles, made of gold and 

 silver, were melted up at a refinery in this city. 



Dr. A. A. JULIEN reported the results of his microscopic examina- 

 tion of the volcanic ash of Krakatoa, from a specimen fallen upon 

 the deck of a vessel off the coast during that eruption. The material 

 is almost entirely angular, only a few of the larger grains showing 

 such slight rounding of angles as might have been produced by mu- 



