1883. 15 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sci. 
The PRESIDENT referred to a sermon, recently delivered in this 
city, in which these eruptions were cited as overturning modern 
geological theories, and he showed its mistake. 
Dr. B. N. Martin exhibited a silver casting, of archzological 
interest, which was discovered by Messrs. LyMAN and SQulIER, in 
Peru, many years ago, and has recently been brought to this city. 
Several castings were found in one village, mostly domestic in 
subject, but the one exhibited presented possibly a religious form, 
and was so treated by the natives in whose possession it was 
found. Ona thin, round tablet, twelve centimetres in diameter, 
was a figure of an Indian, with one knee bent, and a metal axe 
lying at his foot, facing a tree with a serpent at the base; at his 
left was a pole, supported upon two forked props, beneath which 
was bound a human figure, face downward, over a square pile of 
fagots. The execution implied great skill in the prehistoric races 
of America. 
The SECRETARY Called attention to the peculiarity of the fact of 
the insertion of the handle of the axe in the socket. 
The PRESIDENT referred to the remarkable skill in metal working 
of the South American and Central American races, as shown in 
the specimens found at Chiriqui and elsewhere ; but stated that 
he had never seen any one equal to that on exhibition. Other 
instances of their skill had been shown by the casts of figures in 
silver from Peru, which had been exhibited by Dr. Orts several 
years ago, and the casts in an alloy of gold, copper, and silver, 
which had been “pickled” in some solution, leaving only the 
gold at the surface, and afterward polished. He described an axe 
of copper, from Chili, now in his own possession, which was ex- 
ceedingly well wrought—better than any other he had seen. This 
was very ancient, and belonged to a civilization anterior to 
that of the present time. It had been bound to a handle with 
thongs of some kind, and he had never seen any American imple- 
ment, of prehistoric age, which had been pierced for the reception 
of a handle. 
Dr. A. R. LEDoux then spoke on the subject of 
THE RELATIVE SOIL-EXHAUSTION BY THE SUGAR-CANE CROP. 
This communication presented an exceedingly interesting account 
of the systematic mode of cultivation of a very large sugar plantation 
