110 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



ca^^'ed from a boulder, two large stone slabs showing in relief, respect- 

 ively, the figure of a monkey and of an alligator, and five fragments of 

 metates (heads of animals). Some of the celts are of very elegant form, 

 as shown in Fig. 19, representing one of them. The arrow and spear 

 heads chipped from flakes of flint and jasper frequently show the form 

 of a three-sided pyramid. This form seems to be peculiar to Chiriqui, 

 on the western continent, but it also occurs in greater perfection in 

 Denmark and Sweden. A Obiriqui arrow-head of jasper is represented 

 in Fig. 20. 



WEST INDIES. 



Mr. F. A. Ober, of Beverly, Mass., presented a collection from the 

 Island of Nevis. It consists of four polished stone implements of re- 

 markable forms, and apparently designed for crushing and smoothing 

 I>urposes, three jiestles, a xiolishiug-stone, a fragment of a jade celt, 

 and two celts made of shell. 



Messrs. Thomas Lee and Willard Nye, jr., connected with the U. S. 

 Commission of Fish and Fisheries, obtained two polished celts on Abaco 

 Island; a polished celt, a rubbing-stone, and a fragment of worked boue 

 on New Providence Island 5 three polished celts, a chisel, a small drilled 

 pendant of fine workmanship (perhaps jade), seventy fragmentary hu- 

 man bones, embracing skull and* jaw bones and other parts of skeletons, 

 and fifteen pieces of smooth pottery, from a cave on Watling Island. 



ROUTINE WORK. 



The entering of specimens has been performed according to the 

 method followed in all departments of the National Museum. In the 

 general catalogue the running number cf the specimen is noted, together 

 with the private number, if there is one, and its character briefly indi- 

 cated; there are further mentioned the locality where the object was ob- 

 tained and the name of the donor or person from whom it was acquired; 

 lastly, the date of the entry is given. This mode of recording would suf- 

 fice for certain classes of natural objects, and, indeed, suffices for such 

 stray antiquities as are simply taken from the surface ; but it is far from 

 supplying the data required for archaeologic specimens found in graves, 

 mounds, caves, shell-heaps, camping-grounds, deposits, etc. — in short, 

 under circumstances calculated to elucidate the modes and customs of 

 those by whom the objects were left. In such cases all attainable in- 

 formation contained in letters, or orally communicated, is carefully 

 noted in the "reference-book," which thus forms the supplement to the 

 general catalogue — an archive affording the means of learning the his- 

 tory of many single objects and collections exhibited- in this depart- 

 ment. Whenever an entry is made in the reference-book, the page on 

 which it is to be found is indicated in the last column of the general 

 catalogue. The data recorded in the reference-book cover a perioil of 

 several years. 



