APPENDIX : ELEPHANT PIPES AND INSCRIBED TABLETS. 343 



them made very soon. The National Academy meets here next week, 

 when the specimens will be exhibited, and thereafter immediately re- 

 turned. Yours very truly, 



Spencer F. Baird. 

 W. H. Pratt, Esq., 



Curator Davenport Academy of Seiences, Davenport, /otcui. 



Smithsonian Institution, / 

 Washington, D. C, May 31, 1877. f 

 I?ear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of the 28th, and in reply 

 beg to say that the duplicates were submitted informally to the mem- 

 bers of the National Academy of Sciences, but that an official presen- 

 tation was prevented by the crowd of other business that i^ressed it out 

 of place. Most of the persons who examined them — among whom 

 were Professor Haldeman, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, and others — ^aerc 

 of the opinion that they were Jinqnestionably of great antiquity, the abso- 

 lute period of which could not of course be nieasured. The similarity in 

 the weathering of the inscriptions to that of the rest of the tablets gave 

 them this impression. Most of them, however, preferred to defer any 

 formal consideration of the subject until they could have good photo- 

 graphs or lithographs for suitable investigation at home, their examina- 

 tion in the excitement and pressure of the meeting being necessarily 

 hurried. Yours truly, 



Spencer F. Baird. 

 W. H. Pratt, Esq., Davenport, Iowa. 



