262 
American collections, has just completed an 
exhaustive investigation of the native copper 
and bronze industry of the New World. 
The primary part of the investigation was the 
chemical analysis of one hundred and sixty 
Museum specimens, so selected as to give 
typical series for each important locality. 
The laboratory tests were made by Mr. W. A. 
Wissler, A. M. Mr. Mead finds by corre- 
lating the chemical determinations with the 
distribution and types of implements, that 
the prehistoric Peruvians thoroughly under- 
stood the art of making bronze from copper 
and tin. In addition, he has brought to- 
gether the early fragmentary accounts of 
Spanish explorers as to how these metals 
were worked, which became more intelligible 
in the light of the chemical studies. Among 
the obscure and little-known sources is the 
Arte De Los Metales by Alvaro Alonso Barba, 
published early in the seventeenth century, a 
copy of which was kindly placed at Mr. 
Mead’s disposal by Mr. E. P. Mathewson of 
the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. 
The full report of this study will soon appear 
in the Anthropological Papers of the Museum. 
Dr. Rosert H. Lowrie and Mr. ALANSON 
SKINNER of the department of anthropology 
have just completed five publication reports 
upon their last year’s field work among our 
western Indians. Dr. Lowie made a special 
study of the societies and social organiza- 
tions of the Ute and Shoshone, while Mr. 
Skinner investigated the same aspects of 
primitive culture among the Iowa, Kansa 
and Ponca tribes. These reports will appear 
in a special volume of the Anthropological 
Papers now nearing completion, treating the 
societies and social organizations of the 
Plains Indians in an exhaustive manner. 
On April 9, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers of Cam- 
bridge University, England, visited the de- 
partment of anthropology of the Museum, 
having stopped a day in New York on his 
return from attendance at the Australian 
meeting of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science and a subsequent 
visit to several of the South Sea Islands. Dr. 
Rivers is known among _ anthropologists 
throughout the world for his intensive re- 
searches into the ethnology of the Torres 
Straits Islanders and of the Todas of southern 
India. More recently he investigated vari- 
ous of the Melanesian groups as director of 
the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition. He has 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
profoundly stimulated ethnological thought 
by developing the genealogical method as a 
means of research in the study of social 
usages and by directing attention to the im- 
portance of kinship nomenclature. His latest 
publications, Kinship and Social Organisation 
and The History of Melanesian Society are 
largely devoted to the latter topic and form a 
landmark in the history of the subject. At the 
Museum, Dr. Rivers examined with interest 
the collections in the South Sea hall and dis- 
cussed the investigations of kinship terminolo- 
gies of North American and Oceanian peoples. 
Mr. Russet J. Coins has presented to 
the Museum an eighteen-foot female Manta 
(devilfish or giant ray). This was caught on 
April 11 in the Gulf of Mexico, some one 
hundred miles south of Tampa, after a danger- 
ous twenty-two-minute fight with the giant 
fish. Mr. Coles was instrumental last year in 
procuring for the Museum two specimens of 
Manta, respectively eleven and seven and one- 
half feet across, but knowing that the species 
reached a much larger size, he has not rested 
until a finer specimen was secured. The 
one just captured is, as far as we are 
aware, the largest recorded on our Atlantic 
coast, for while the species is popularly said 
in books to reach a width of twenty feet, none 
of these giants has as yet come to hand. A 
reproduction of this eighteen-foot animal 
will make a magnificent addition to our 
exhibit of fishes. 
In the New York City building at the 
Panama-Pacific Exposition, to the right of 
the entrance, is an alcove containing photo- 
graphic exhibits of the several museums and 
libraries of New York City. The selected 
exhibits from the American Museum of Natu- 
ral History aims to indicate to the general 
public the institution’s scientific scope, its 
financial status, and its place in the city as 
an educational institution. 
Dr. Rosert H. Lowte will leave early in 
June for field work among the Kiowa Indians 
of Oklahoma, the Hopi of Arizona and the 
Paiute of Nevada. From the Kiowa Dr. 
Lowie hopes to secure information concerning 
their military societies; the investigations 
among the Hopi will cover social organization 
or clan system; and the work in Nevada is a 
continuation of that undertaken last year as 
part of the Museum’s extensive survey of 
Shoshonean tribes. 
