270 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



facts suggest another possible explanation of these omissions in the 

 pipes. In this connection, it may be mentioned as at least a curious 

 coincidence that in the representation of the elephant in Johnson's 

 Cyclopedia the artist has also omitted the tusks. 



While the explanations we have presented may be somewhat conjec- 

 tural, and perhaps not entirely satisfactory, it can still be claimed, with 

 entire confidence, that the omission of the "tusks" in these carvings 

 furnishes no basis whatever for a suspicion of "fraud." An artist pos- 

 sessed of sufficient skill to sculpture these pipes, and intending to 

 deceive and defraud, would have closely followed his model, and 

 surely would never have omitted one of its most striking features. 

 Beyond a peradventure, an artistic knave would have given us tusks, 

 trunk, tail, and all. The omission, therefore, of the former in these 

 representations tends to establish the honesty of the artist and fur- 

 nishes a strong argument in favor of the authenticity of these relics. 



In the argument of Mr. Henshaw, based upon the absence of the 

 "tail" in these carvings, he is peculiarly unfortunate. He has been 

 misled, no doubt, by the faulty "illustrations," which alone he must 

 have consulted, inasmuch as in each of these pipes the "tail" is well 

 developed. It will also be found clearly represented in the photo- 

 graphs sent to the Smithsonian Institution, in the illustrations of the 

 pipes given in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy, and in 

 the stamp on the cover of the volume. So, too, in the "Prehistoric 

 America" of Nadaillac, quite recently introduced to the American 

 public by a noted archc-eologist (Mr. Dall), w'e find an illustration of 

 one of these identical elephant pipes, with the missing "tail" in full 

 view I It is a noticeable circumstance, that, while Barber, Vining, and 

 other writers commented upon the absence of "tusks," it remained for 

 Mr. Henshaw to make the remarkable discovery that the "tail" was 

 also missing in these carvings. The conclusion is inevitable, that Mr. 

 Henshaw drew largely upon Mr. Barber's article for his scientific mate- 

 rial, and that he was betrayed into the commission of this mistake by 

 the "imperfection" of the illustrations used by Mr. Barber and copied 

 by Mr. Henshaw without verification. 



The following are correct illustrations of the two elephant pipes now 

 in our museum. Figure i represents the pipe plowed up by Peter 

 Mare in a corn-field in Louisa County, Iowa, and Figure 2 that dis- 

 covered by Rev. A. Blumer in a mound in the same county :* 



* For these illustrations we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Edward P. Vining, author of 

 "An Ing^lorioiis Columbus." 



