636 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



thorongli nature have been prosecuted by the Archaeological Institute 

 of America among the pueblos of Mexico and the antiquities of Assos; 

 by the Peabody Museum among the works of the Mound-Builders; by 

 the American Antiquarian Society in the early history of our white 

 settlements; by the Smithsonian Institution, and especially by the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, not only among the pueblos, but also among 

 the mounds. It would be impossible to mention all the thorough 

 work in progress by local societies and individuals in all the States 

 where antiquities exist. 



The startling find of the year was the "Carson Footprints," at first 

 claimexl to have been left "on the sands of time" by a giant with a 

 foot 18 inches long. Prof. Joseph Le Conte thus describes them: "The 

 nearly horizontal strata in which they occur consist of beds of sandstone 

 with thin layers of fine shale. The track layer, which is one of these 

 latter, has been uncovered for nearly two acres, and forms the floor of 

 the prison yard, while the stones removed have been used to build the 

 prison. From the fossils discovered, the deposit seems to be the equus 

 beds, by some put in the Upper Pliocene; by others, in the lowest Qua- 

 ternary. It is i^robably a transition between the two. The whole sur- 

 face of the shale exposed is covered with tracks of many kinds, but the 

 mud was so soft that the nature of many of them can only be guessed; 

 the most interesting are those of the mammoth and the problematical 

 so-called human tracks. The 'human' tracks occur in several regular 

 alternating series of 15 to 20. In size they are 18 to 20 inches long and 

 8 inches wide. In shape they are, many of them, far more curved than 

 the human track, especially in soft mud. The stride is 2^ to 3 feet, and 

 «ven more. But the most remarkable thing about them, on the human 

 theory, is the straddle, amonnting to 18 and even 19 inches - - - . 

 After careful examination for several days, the conclusion reached was 

 that the tracks were probably made by a large plantigrade quadruped, 

 most like a gigantic ground-sloth, such as the Mylodon of the Quater- 

 nary, or the Morotherium of the Upper Pliocene of Nevada." Similar 

 views have been expressed by Professor Marsh and G. K. Gilbert. 

 {Nature, May 31, 1883.) 



The Archaeological Institute of America published during the year 

 the first volume of its classical series relative to investigations in Assos, 

 in 1881, a neat volume of 215 pages, with illustrations and maps. It 

 also issued the third annual report, which gives us, in addition to the 

 usual balance sheet and list of members, the report of a special com- 

 mittee upon the plan of operations of the institute and the work of Mr. 

 Bandelier in Mexico. The last-named gentleman has studied the con- 

 struction, the function, and the builders of the pyramid of Cholula. 

 He regards the structui e as mnde of huge walls of adobe, forming 

 immense communal buildings, like those at Pecos and other places in 

 New Mexico, in size approaching those of Uxmal or Palenque, and 



