JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 569 



posed of similar materials, whether artificial or natural, nothing definite 

 can be inferred from these analyses, any more than from the mere ap- 

 pearance of the mass, as to the question of its origin. 



The observations of Messrs. Squier and Davis upon this mound, and 

 that called Monk's Mound in the American Bottom, comparing them 

 with other similar mounds of the Mississippi valley, which were ascer- 

 tained to be artificial, satisfied them that these two, at least, were arti- 

 ficial, and belonged to the class of Temple Mounds; but it may still be 

 possible, however, that these, like the smaller mounds of the Illinois bottom, 

 were naturally formed, and that they were only used, as found by the In- 

 dians, for superstitious purposes. The facts known are all against such 

 an hypothesis. 



Dr. De Haas, being present, upon invitation, stated, in 

 confirmation of the artificial character of the Big Mound at 

 St. Louis, that his investigations had left no doubt on his 

 mind as to its artificial origin. 



The President read his Annual Address : 



We look back to-day on a series of eleven years since the foundation 

 of our Academy, and can do so with satisfaction and with pride. If we 

 have not succeeded as well as eleven years ago some of us may fondly 

 have hoped we should or could do ; if we have not raised a palace to 

 Science, and filled it with the natural productions of ours and other coun- 

 tries ; if we have not issued volumes and volumes of scientific discoveries to 

 enlighten the world ; we have done more than could reasonably be expected 

 from so small a number of active men, who had only a few hours left to 

 them by professional or business avocations to give to their scientific labors, 

 and whose financial means, not aided by the heavy men of our city, 

 scarcely enabled them to hold together and preserve what they had ac- 

 cumulated of scientific treasures, and to publish in modest pages the re- 

 sults of their researches and explorations. Yes, it fills us with satisfac- 

 tion and with pride to see that we have been able to gather together such 

 a museum as we possess in the large hall, to accumulate that highly val- 

 uable library wnich you see in the adjoining room, and to proclaim to the 

 scientific world through six numbers of our publications, that out here, 

 on the banks of the Mississippi, here in this vast community of business 

 men, some at least find inclination and leisure to prosecute the more ab- 

 stract but none the less important and useful study of science. 



What we want now, in order to make our Academy what such an in- 

 stitution in this great central city of North America ought to be, are, 

 first, a large number of active members, not only what our constitution 

 terms active members, but laboring members, and, secondly, funds: funds 

 to exhibit, put up, preserve and properly increase our collections; funds 

 to preserve and increase our library ; funds to publish and illustrate our 

 transactions. 



Fortunately, we have found in the late Col. O'Fallon and our member 

 Dr. Chas. A. Pope generous promoters of our aims, who have granted 

 us, gratuitously, the use of the different halls we occupy in this building. 

 But even free of rent we could not have been able to get along if liberal- 

 minded members and friends, imbued with the importance of our under- 

 taking, had not from time to time aided us with considerable pecuniaiy 

 assistance. 



Our regular income from the contribution of members amounts to 

 about four hundred and fifty dollars annually, and our most necessary 

 current expenses may be defrayed by about two hundred dollars, so that 

 two hundred and fifty dollars would remain for all the above mentioned 

 objects of the Academy. The printing of one number of our transac- 

 tions alone, of the ordinary size, costs, say, eight hundred dollars, and 

 with illustrations, such as we have been in the habit of giving, one nun- 



