SQTJIER AND DAVIS. 117 



enter into so minute a detail. We may mention, generally, that in the American 

 Journal of Science, during the years from 1834 to 1844, were printed valuable 

 papers from gentlemen who had examined particular works, or particular sections 

 of country. The official reports of Topographical and Geological Surveyors also 

 record many interesting facts and observations. The substance of these has, how- 

 ever, been mostly transferred to the archaeological work of Messrs. Squier and 

 Davis, to which we may next direct out attention. 1 



This was the first publication of the Smithsonian Institution, and was the result 

 of explorations and investigations, commenced by the authors in the spring of 

 1845, and continued to the summer of 1847. 



Dr. Davis had been previously located as a practising physician at Chillicothe, 

 Ohio, which is in the heart of the most interesting remains that are found in the 

 Mississippi basin, and apparently near the centre of the principal seats of ancient 

 population. There he had been led by scientific curiosity, not only to examine 

 the exterior of mounds and mural structures, abounding in the neighborhood, but 

 to excavate in search of buried contents to explain the purpose of their formation. 

 He had thus collected many singular and striking specimens of art, of superior 

 execution, found in positions and connected with circumstances that promised well 

 to repay the labor of more careful and more extended scrutiny ; and, so far as his 

 professional engagements permitted, he was devoting his time and his means to the 

 pursuit. 



While Dr. Davis was thus engaged, Mr. Squier became a resident of the State, 

 and was soon attracted to the discoveries which his future colleague had com- 

 menced. Combining a knowledge of practical surveying, with that readiness of pen 

 which experience in the editorial chair of a daily press was calculated to bestow, 

 and prompted by the energy and ardor that have since characterized his scientific 

 and literary labors, he gave himself up to the prosecution of studies and researches 

 that might enable him to illustrate the nature and origin of those yet mysterious 

 relics. 2 



These gentlemen, having united their exertions and resources for this mutual 

 purpose, endeavored to obtain the co-operation and assistance of scientific institu- 

 tions in the accomplishment of their design; and were so fortunate as to make an 

 arrangement with the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which encouraged 

 them to proceed, and secured the publication of their work in a manner to give 

 effect to its merits. 



It was a little remarkable, considering all that had before been said and done 

 about the same antiquities, how fresh the subject was to the public mind, how few 

 had any intelligent information respecting it, and how generally unprepared was 



1 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley : comprising the results of extensive Original Sur- 

 veys and Explorations : By E. G. Squier, A. M., and E. H. Davis, M. D. Published by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington, 1848. 



2 The writer visited Chillicothe in 1845, on behalf of the American Antiquarian Society, with 

 reference to the movement for a re-survey of the antiquities of the west ; and was made acquainted 

 with the operations and intentions of the gentlemen above named, and the circumstances under which 

 these originated. 



