28o OAVRXPORT ACADEMY (JF NATURAL SCIENCKS. 



In his introductory chapter, Major Powell commends Mr. Henshaw 

 to the public as "a trained scholar, who can discern the germ of truth 

 even in a blundering statement, and whose own knowledge is a touch- 

 stone'for the detection of spurious productions." We fail to discern 

 this wonderful "touchstone" in the deplorable want of information in 

 Mr. Henshaw which we have been compelled to expose, and from the 

 "blundering statements'' made l)v him. containing not a "germ of 

 truth. ' it is evident his intellectual equipment is insufficient for a suc- 

 cessful teacher of arch;tology.* As an ornithologist of acknowledged 

 skill and al)ility. he was well fitted to engage in the specrial research 

 ]>roperlv before him. and in his inij)ortant undertaking he would have 

 found a Inroad and unoccupied held. The tracing of resemblances 

 between the carvings found in the mounds and known species of birds 

 and animals was a legitimate object, involved important deductions, 

 and. if thoroughly and conscientiously executed, the results must have 

 had great scientific value. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Mr. Hen- 

 shaw was unvviUing to be trammeled by any such limitations; and 

 hence, most unwisely abandoning his special work, this "naturalist," 

 with infinite complacency, takes his place among tr^Rned archaeologists, 

 revises their methods of exploration, and ])romulgates new canons for 

 archccological research ! 



"Now, in the names of all the gods at once, 

 Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed. 

 That he is grown so great?" 



In this connection, the tact should not be overlooked that the so- 

 called "Bureau of Ethnology" was not established for the purpose of 

 conducting exi)!orations in archrcology, but. as its name implies, with 

 the special object in view of prosecuting "researches among the North 

 American Indians," and it will be found that, with a single unimportant 

 exception, no ap[)ropriations have been made by Congress specially 

 for archaeological research. The study of American antiquities has 

 been only incidentally included as remotely connected with the study 

 of our native races. Neither should we overlook the further fact that 

 formerly these ethnological researches were prosecuted in connection 

 with the Rocky Mountain survey under .Major Powell, and that upon 



*In view of this attack upon Mr. Gass, the writer recently submitted some inquiries to a 

 noted archajoloijist as to the standing of Mr. Henshaw among them, and received this curious 

 answer: " Of course the Hureau has a right to attack the authenticity of anything it wants to; 

 but tlie insinuations against Mr. Gass are simply contemptible. Of all forms of libel, I think 

 that of insinuations the meanest. Henshaw, so far as I know, has no standing among archaeolo- 

 gists. I am free to say I have no recollection of having ever heard of him." 



