386 ETHNOLOGY. 



■was away from home at the time, and consequently I could not obtain 

 it from liim. My evident desire to possess it, however, attracted the atten- 

 tion of my foreman, Mr. B. F. Price, and after Douglas returned Price 

 purchased it and sent it to me by express as a present. 



It has been examined by several persons who have paid considerable 

 attention to Indian antiquities in the South, and none of them has ever 

 seen anything like it. Traditions here indicate that the tribes who 

 inhabited this country were not idol- worshipers ; still, this may be 

 erroneous. The cave in which this image was found has never been 

 explored. I believe the inhabitants in the neighborhood are too super- 

 stitious to make many explorations in such places, and the finding of 

 this image did not tend to allay their apprehensions ; consequently there 

 may be many other traces of the worshipers of this idol in the mazy 

 passages of this subterranean labyrinth. Very few of the immense 

 numbers of these caves have ever been thoroughly explored. Some of 

 them have been traced many miles, and hundreds of passages, in every 

 direction, discovered, but no termination was reached in any of them. I 

 have been in one of these caves that I think surpasses the far-famed 

 Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 



I believe that the belt of country referred to in the beginning of my 

 letter is richer in interesting features of geology, mineralogy, antiqui- 

 ties, &c., than any other section of this continent. It is a region that 

 never has been scientifically surveyed, and promises a rich field for the 

 naturalist, geologist, and mineralogist, as well as the antiquarian. 



ON MIXED RACES IN LIBERIA. 



By Edw\ D. Blyden. 



[The writer of the communication from which the following extracts 

 are given is a iiure negro, a native of St. Thomas, and now professor in 

 Liberia College. The letter was addressed to a member of the board of 

 directors of the American Colonization Society. — J. H.] 



Monrovia, Octoher G, 1869. 



My Dear Sir : I send inclosed a catalogue of all the students who 

 have ever been in Liberia College. It will be seen that not only were 

 they not natives, (aborigines,) but more than three-fourths the number 

 have been largely mixed with Caucasian blood, and among these death 

 and disease have made sad ravages. 



The great practical difficulty in the way of succeeding with our schools 

 is the lack of suitable teachers. It is sad to relate that notwithstand- 

 ing the thousands of dollars spent annually here by the different mis- 

 sions for educational purposes, there are still but very few teachers to be 

 found, especially among females, able to conduct properly an elementary 



