PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 101 
rillia, by Dr. Dall, who reported it when he was last here as occurring on 
the cod-fishing banks of the Shamagin Islands, where it annoys the 
fishermen in deep fishing, by reason of their lines becoming entangled 
among the polyps. Dr. Dall presented the California Academy with 
several specimens of the styles obtained by him in this region. Before, it 
was reported from only one place—namely, Burrard’s Inlet, Gulf of 
Georgia, British Columbia. 1 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII. 
Fig.1, basal part of axial rod. 
Fig. 2, section of polypiferous part, showing arrangement of the polyps. 
Note.—It should be borne in mind that the drawings, rough, but 
characteristic, are made from dry specimens, and that the root prongs 
in all of the specimens are broken and much shorter than when perfect. 
The figures are considerably enlarged. 
REPORT ON A FRAGMENT OF CLOTH TAKEN FROM A MOUND IN 
OHIO, 
By J. G. HUNT, M. D. 
[Letters to Prof. S. F. Baird. ] 
PHILADELPHIA, February 21, 1881. 
DEAR Sir: The fragment of cloth you sent me for examination, pur- 
porting to have been taken from a mound in Ohio, has proved nota 
little refractory. It was impossible to detect any structure until proper 
treatment rendered it translucent. I think it a mistake to call such 
cloth “charred”; it is not charred by the action of fire at all, or by slow 
chemical combustion otherwise accomplished. But it is rendered quite 
black and opaque, as all other perishable organic remains become 
when excluded, by burial or otherwise, from the changing conditions of 
atmospheric influence. 
The contents of a mastodon’s stomach I once examined were black 
and opaque, like this cloth, but were not “charred.” Indeed, we lack a 
term to express this curious condition. 
Those ancient weavers did not practice the art of coating textile 
fibers with heavy chemical combinations, as some modern commercial 
Christians are supposed to do. ; 
You desire to know exactly what fiber this cloth is made of? Alas! 
My evidence is only negative. It is not cotton; norhemp; nor flax. I 
think it is not any fiber now used for textile purposes. Though veg- 
etable in its nature, it is not a fiber at all, but consists of the entire 
stem of the plant, or of large portions of it, no apparent attempt hay- 
ing been made to separate the fiber before manufacturing. I think the 
