SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 



While the foregohig ]iaper was in the hands of the printer, Vohime III. of the 

 "Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington" was received, and as 

 its contents have an important bearing upon the questions under discussion, we will 

 add a few notes by way of comment thereon. Thus, at the meeting held on Decem- 

 ber 4th, 1883, it appears that Major Powell, in the discussion which followed the 

 presentation of a paper by Mr. William H. Holmes, on the "Te.xtile Fabrics of the 

 Mound-builders," made the following report concerning the paper of Mr. Henshaw 

 under review: 



"Mr. Henshaw, also of the Bureau of Ethnology, has made an interesting investi- 

 gation of a subject which throws light upon this question. The early writers claimed 

 that the stone carvings found in the mounds were often repiesentations of birds, 

 mammals, and other animals not now existing in the region where these mounds 

 were found, and that the Mound-builders were thus shown to be familiar with the 

 fauna of a tropical country, and they have even gone so far as to claim that they 

 were familiar with the fauna of Asia, as it has been claimed that elephant pipes have 

 been found. Now these carvings have all been carefully studied by Mr. Henshaw, 

 and he discovers that it is only by the wildest imagination that they can be sujiposed 

 to represent extralimital animals; that, in fact, they are all rude carvings of birds, 

 such as eagles ami hawks, or of mammals, such as beavers and otters, and he has 

 made new drawings of these carvings, and will, in a publication which has gone to 

 press, jiresent them, together with the drawings originally published, and he makes 

 a thorough discussion of the subject, being qualified thereto from the fact that he is 

 himself a trained naturalist, familiar with these forms by many years of study. It 

 will thus be seen that many lines of research are converging in the conclusion that 

 the Mound-builders of this country were, at least to a large extent, the Indian trii)es 

 found inhabiting this country at the advent of the white man, and that in none of 

 the mounds do we discover works of art in any way superior to those of the North 

 American Indians." 



We have quoted this paragraph in full, because it plainly indicates that the paper 

 of Mr. Henshaw was not included by Major Powell in his official report through 

 oversight, but thtt it had been by him carefully considered, and that its argument 

 had his hearty ajiproval and endorsement. The statement, however, that "these 

 carvings have all l)een carefully studied by Mr. Henshaw," is scarcely borne out by 

 the curious fact that he failed to discover the "tails" on our elephant pipes, but, on 

 the contrary, based his principal argument against their authenticity upon the omis- 

 sion of these appendages. 



In turning over the pages of these "Tran.sactions," the careful reader will not fail 

 to notice the frequency with which Major Powell presents his favorite theory that 

 "the Mound-builders were the Indian tribes found inhabiting this country at the 

 advent of the while man." It furnish.e-; an inq)ortant part of the entertainment at 



