MUSEUM NOTES 



279 



iu the trenches. The explorer further said : 

 "This country has taken its stand. Money 

 and ships Avill be needed from you but more 

 than that is necessary; it is necessary for 

 the manhood of the nation to stand up and 

 meet the sacrifices that may be entailed." 



Theodore D. Eousseau, the Mayor's secre- 

 tary, on behalf of Mayor Mitchel, who could 

 not be present, presented the key of the city 

 to Sir Ernest Shackletou. 



On the evening of the same day, at a 

 meeting held in Carnegie Hall under the 

 joint auspices of the American Museum of 

 Natural History and the American Geo- 

 graphical Society, an audience of twenty-five 

 hundred people greeted Sir Ernest with 

 great enthusiasm. His account of long 

 months spent in an ice-locked region, endur- 

 ing hardships almost beyond comprehension, 

 was given simply and intermingled Avith 

 flashes of true Irish humor which delighted 

 his hearers. Nights spent on floating ice- 

 bergs which Avere momentarily expected to 

 break up, followed by days in small boats 

 which might at any instant be crushed like 

 eggshells, were regular features of the at- 

 tempt to cross the south polar sea, an at- 

 tempt which had finally to be abandoned. 

 To graphic description were added many pic- 

 tures lending reality to the scenes. Great 

 credit belongs to the leadership which 

 brought back from such a hazardous under- 

 taking the same number of men that went 

 forth. In closing his lecture Sir Ernest 

 spoke of the war situation and the necessity 

 that the Allies stand together in the "great 

 adventure." The proceeds of this lecture go 

 to the war relief fund. 



On Tuesday, May 1, Sir Ernest Shackleton 

 visited the American Museum as the guest of 

 President Henry Fairfield Osborn. 



Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, of the American 

 Museum, and Mr. Sylvanus G. Morley, of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, are 

 spending a few weeks in an archaeological 

 survey in Central America. This work, which 

 is undertaken with the consent of the Central 

 American governments, will probably take 

 them to Guatemala, western Honduras, Sal- 

 vador, and Nicaragua, and they will pay par- 

 ticular attention to the study and collection 

 of such designs, dyestuflfs, native foods, and 

 samples of weaving and costumes as seem to 

 have significance for our country in view of 

 the present war conditions. 



In the recent death of William Hayes, 

 night watchman since 1910 in the American 

 Museum of Natural History, the institution 

 loses a trustworthy and efficient member of 

 its force. It wishes to express to his friends 

 and to those associated with him on the Mu- 

 seum staff appreciation of these years of 

 faithful service. 



Mr. N. C. Nelson was recently sent by the 

 American Museum to make a brief recon- 

 naissance of Indian shell mounds in the 

 vicinity of Oak Hill and New Smyrna, Flor- 

 ida. These mounds, it was learned not long 

 ago, had been largely cut into in the course 

 of a campaign of road construction, and at 

 least one of them had been very nearly de- 

 molished by the steam shovels. Others are, 

 however, intact, and still offer an attractive 

 field for excavation. Such mounds are fre- 

 quently found to contain bones, refuse, and 

 even implements, all of which are of value in 

 reconstructing the life of the past. During 

 his stay Mr. Nelson visited Tallahassee to 

 confer with Dr. E. H. Sellards, state geolo- 

 gist of Florida. 



The examining board of the United States 

 Army has qualified Mr. Harrington Moore, 

 associate curator of woods and forestry in 

 the American Museum, as a captain of engi- 

 neers, and instructed him to report at the 

 training camp at Plattsburg, May 8. 



The Museum has recently received as a gift 

 from Mr. Henry Hornbostel a large series of 

 valuable photographs from Central America. 

 These were taken by Mr. Teoberto Maler of 

 the Peabody Museum of Harvard Univer- 

 sity. They deal almost exclusively with fine 

 examples of Maya temple architecture. 



The teeth of the devilfish recently killed by 

 Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, while the guest 

 of Mr. Eussell J. Coles on a fishing cruise off 

 the coast of Florida, are being examined by 

 Dr. Louis Hussakof. This work is in con- 

 tinuation of a study of the anatomy of the 

 devilfish begun by Dr. Hussakof during his 

 connection with the department of ichthy- 

 ology of the American Museum. 



Tlie Geographical Review of April, 1917, 

 prints an illustrated article by Mr. Leo E. 

 Miller, "Up the Orinoco to the Land of the 

 Maquiritares." It is a description of the 



