AFPKNDIX : EI.KPHANT PIPES AND INSCRIBED TABLETS. 259 



"I am, of course, only an outsider, and look upon the workers in the field of 

 archaeology from over the fence; still I am so close that I feel like offering a sugges- 

 tion occasionally, and I do wish you archaeologists could introduce some scientific 

 methods into so interesting a study, gather up the facts, arrange them systemat- 

 ically, and then deduce the theories. But this is an age of speculation, and even in 

 entomology there is a strong tendency to get up a theory and then hunt for facts to 

 .support it." 



And in a subsequent letter to the same gentleman, Mr. Putnam thus 

 explicitly states the position of the Academy upon the questions raised 

 by the discovery of its inscribed tablets : 



"Whether they are modern Indian, or Mound-builder, or Mexican, or European, 

 or post-Columbian, or ante-Columbian — whether the characters are phonetic, sym- 

 Ijolic, hieroglyphic, or meaningless — is yet to be decided; we have no means of 

 knowing." 



And in looking over the many statements made by Mr. Gass. the 

 principal discoverer of these relics, as published in the Proceedings of 

 the Academy, it will be found that they contain no suggestion of a 

 theory. On the contrary, in giving a description of some inscribed 

 rocks in Cleona Township, Scott County, Iowa, he thus states his own 

 position upon these mooted questions : 



"But for what purpose the people selected them, by what intention they were 

 guided, with what kind of tools the inscriptions on such hard material were made, 

 by what nation the engraving was executed — Indian or Mound-builder — these are 

 questions which I do not venture to answer." * 



In these utterances on behalf of the Academy will be found the lan- 

 guage, not of the champions of a theory, but of earnest seekei-s after 

 truth. 



That the theory advanced by the Bureau of Ethnology as to the 

 origin of the Mound-builders should be maintained with consummate 

 ability, was to be expected of the able and accomplished scholars 

 enlisted in its service. It is, however, to be regretted that, actuated 

 by intemperate zeal to establish this theory, its promoters have some- 

 times abandoned scientific methods, indulged in hasty generalizations, 

 and even violated the amenities of literature. It will be found that 

 the second annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, recently issued 

 under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, is open to this criti- 

 cism. In that report there apj^ears a monograph by Henry W. Hen- 

 shaw, entitled "Animal Carvings from Mounds in the Mississippi 

 Valley, "t and therein an attack of no ordinary severity is made upon 



* Proceeding;? of Davenport -Vcademy of Natural Sciences, \'o\. II., p. 173. 



f Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washing^ton, iSSo-Si, p. 152. 



S O T A lu ^ .-» - . 



