DEPARTMENT OF PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGY. 187 



Primarily this division would be by States and Territories, then by 

 such interior localities as might be found practicable, but with an in- 

 flexible rule that objects from a given cemetery, grave, mound, earth- 

 work, or other monument should be kept together. There are but two 

 exceptions to this arrangement. Some specimens have been taken out 

 of the spaces assigned to their localities to serve in the synoi^tical cases. 

 Some others are banner-stones, bird and beast shaped, the function of 

 which is unknown. The copper objects have been taken out and 

 grouped together, but they have all been replaced in their localities 

 with representative drawings. In April of last year the order was 

 received to carry this scheme of classification into eftect. The ar- 

 ranged cases had to be entirely changed, and every movable case on 

 the floor placed in a new position. The trays in each case had to be 

 changed as well as a large proportion of the objects in each tray. As 

 the specimens in my department number in the neighborhood of 

 160,000, it will be seen that this work involved no small labor, and 

 almost the entire latter half of the fiscal year was consumed in its per- 

 formance. It was done in great hurry in preparing for the meetings of 

 the scientific societies and congresses which were to be held in August 

 and September, 1891, in Washington City. It required the services of 

 the entire force of the department to the neglect of routine duty, and 

 was barely completed in time. In the haste consequent upon this, 

 there will be found a necessity for a continuation of the work in further 

 re-arrangement and classification, and in the preparation of new labels. 

 If the science of prehistoric anthropology were well known and firmly 

 determined, it would not be difificult to eftect these new arrangements 

 and write the new labels, but everything is so strange that one has to 

 proceed carefully and step by step, as in working out a new inventicm. 



The main body of the hall is occupied by these different cases — tall 

 uprights, slope-topped, and flat-topped cases — which contain the objects 

 belonging to the neolithic period of the United States, divided accord- 

 ing to States and Territories. 



A diagram of hall with localities indicated is here presented (Plate i). 

 The States are not arranged according to sequence, as it was difficult to 

 do so. This difiiculty will be apparent after a moment's consideration. 

 While the New England and Middle States will follow in regular se- 

 quence, yet, on arriving at Pennsylvania and Maryland, the line may 

 branch off to the west and go through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or go 

 south through Maryland, Virginia, and the Oarolinas. Tennessee and 

 Kentucky belong, of course, together, but they join equally Ohio, In- 

 diana, and Illinois on the north, Virginia and the Carolinas on the east, 

 Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi on the south, and Missouri and Ar- 

 kansas on the west. They can not be put in juxtaposition with all 

 these mentioned, and therefore sacrifices mu.st be made. The same is 

 true of other States, which will be apparent without being mentioned. 

 The exigencies of display arising from the ditferent kinds of cases and 



