W. H. PRATT. president's ANNUAL ADDRESS. 151 



this community, but the whole scientific world owe a debt of grati- 

 tude to tliese missionaries in the field of science. 



As for tlie work done, that was necessarily connected with the 

 cleaning, assorting, arranging, labeling and distribu::ing among the 

 various departments represented in our museum. T can assure 

 you, this work is of a frightening magnitude. For this the Academy 

 is solely indebted to Mr. Pratt, and not to me, as he has, with faith- 

 fulness and energy not paralbded in the history of our institution, 

 besides his duties as president, also taken this great amount of la- 

 bor and responsibility practically u])on his own shoulders. 



Mr. .r. D. Putnam, chairmrm of the Publication Committee re- 

 p(trted that the printing of th(^ letter press of Volume II of the 

 Proceedings of the Academy was completed on F(d>ruary "^d, but a 

 long and unexpected delay occurred in the printing of the steel 

 plates, so that it was May 14th, when the first complete copies 

 were received, and August l?th when the work was finally com- 

 pleted, and it has not yet been fully distributed. Four new photo- 

 graphic negatives were made during the year, making a total of 

 eighty-three now on hand. A few prints of these and a few copies 

 of Vol. I and Part 1 of Vol. Ill of the Academy's Proceedings have 

 been sold or otherwise distributed. It was recommended that the 

 publication of the Proceedings be resumed as speedily as possible, 

 and it was suggested that the printing could be done in the build- 

 ing with considerable economv and convenience. 



The President's Annual Address. 



BY AV. H. PRATT. 



In presenting a report, as the outgoing President is required to 

 do, of the condition and progress of the Academy in all its depart- 

 ments, it may be interesting to refer briefly to the history of the 

 rise and growth of one now very interesting and important branch 

 of the science of arch?eology — itself a comparatively new one — and 

 one in which the Academy has been especially engaged, viz : the 

 history of the jjre-historic people of the Mississippi Valley. At the 

 period of the organization of our society probably few persons had 

 ever heard of the term now in so common use, "the mound-builders.'" 



The tumuli scattered over all this region of country, and which 

 had attracted little attention, had beeii ccmsidered '• Intlian graves," 

 and few, or perhaps none, had been explored further than to unearth 

 some of what are now known as " intrusive burials," made by a 



