OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 11 



American Indians was very <:freat, and tliut tlioy occasionally made 

 journeys completely across this continent, as, for instance, the journey 

 of IMoncacht-Ape,* together with others fully as remarkable and per- 

 haps more authentic. Moreover, Margry writes : " 11 nous disoit, dans 

 la Bibliotheque du Roy, a. leu M. Thevenot et a moy, qu'il estoit dans 

 la mesme opinion, et cela d'autant plus que le Pere Martini luy avoua, 

 en la Chine, qu'il avoit coni'esse en espagnol uue femme Mexitjuaine, 

 qui, ayant este enlevee esclave au Mexique, estoit arrivee de pays en 

 pays, de nation en nation et d'esclavage en esclavage, en la Chine, 

 par terre, sans avoir passe qu'un petit dctroit de mer, et cette histoire 

 est rapportt^e dans le cinquiesme volume in-8° en italien, avec figures 

 de Giro del Mondo, du docteur Gemelli, Napolitain, arrive depuis uu 

 an a Naples, d'ou je me suis fait venir ce livre en six volumes." t 



If this could be believed, it might be possible that the Prehistoric 

 iron had found its way across Behring Straits till finally it was col- 

 lected, with the other relics from all parts of this country, on the altar 

 of Mound No. 3 of the Turner Group in Little Miami Valley, Ohio. 

 Unfortunately for this solution, Prof. F. W. Putnam considers that 

 the people who built the mounds came fi'om the south. That they may 

 have at one time had communication with China seems probable from 

 the frequent occurrence of specimens of jadeite among their imjjlements, 

 and from the fact that in most cases the jadeite implements have been 

 subsequently cut up into ornaments, while the nephrites have been left 

 intact, showing that the former must have become more and more 

 rare and highly prized as they were passed down through successive 

 generations. 



Provided that the original owners of our Prehistoric meteorite had 

 associations with China, still there is no reason for supposing that they 

 had any communication with Siberia. Nevertheless, can it be consid- 

 ered much more remarkable that a Siberian meteorite should be found 

 on an altar in an Ohio mound, than that a pipe of the red indurated 

 clay, found only on the Pipe Stone Branch of the Little Sioux River 

 of the Missouri, should be picked up on the banks of the Rio de la 

 Plata in South America, and several more in New England ? J 



The only other explanation of the close resemblance between the 

 Prehistoric iron and the original Pallas would be that they were two 

 portions of the same meteoric outburst which fell at remote distances 



* Proc. Am. Antiquarian Soc, April 25, 1883. 



t Decouvertes de I'Amerique Septentrionale, 1614-1754, Vol. VI. p. 173. 



t Long's Expedition, Vol. I. p. 31. 



