16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 
and silver are shown by analysis to be native American, probably from the 
Lake Superior region. Silver and copper ornaments practically identical to 
this have been found in small numbers in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, and 
Michigan, 
Thin, flaked knives, struck with a single blow from flint cores, were found 
both in the mound and in the adjoining field. ‘These are identical in every 
respect with the flaked knives from Flint Ridge in Ohio which, while abundant 
in the Ohio mounds, are rarely found in other localities. 
With the most significant features of the McRae mound so strongly suggest- 
ing northern influence, we must conclude that the builders of this Mississippi 
mound maintained at least a close trade relationship with the northern tribes. 
While undoubtedly the many mounds and various other earthworks of North 
America were built by Indian tribes of diverse stocks, there are certain 
resemblances between even the most distant of them which suggest a contact 
something more than sporadic. 
Another group of seven small mounds near Hiwannee, Wayne 
County, proved to be similar in contents and construction to the burial 
mounds near Crandall. Upon completing their study, Mr. Collins 
examined the cemetery of the historic Choctaw village of Coosha, 
near Lockhart, Lauderdale County. This was found to be compara- 
tively recent, dating probably from the first 30 years of the nineteenth 
century, and the burials indicated that the Choctaw had by then lost 
most of their native culture and adopted the ways of the whites. 
Mr. Collins concluded his season’s work with a series of measure- 
ments and observations on 58 adult Choctaw living at Philadelphia, 
Miss. 
SMITHSONIAN RADIO TALKS 
The Institution continued to make use of radio broadcasting as 
an effective means of carrying out its purpose—the increase and dif- 
fusion of knowledge. The Smithsonian talks on scientific subjects 
continued to increase in popularity as indicated by the interest shown 
in them by magazine editors, news writers, and others. The talks 
were given on a regular weekly schedule from Station WRC, of the 
Radio Corporation of America, Washington, D. C., beginning 
October 1, 1925, and continuing until May 20, 1926. Thirty-two 
talks were given in all, of which 14 were presented by members of 
the staff of the Institution and its branches, and the other 18 by 
representatives of the Department of the Interior, the Department 
of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and Harvard College 
Observatory, speaking under the auspices of the Institution. 'Through 
the cooperation of Prof. J. McKeen Cattell, many of the talks have 
been published with illustrations in the Scientific Monthly. 
Through a system of exchanges, seven of the Smithsonian talks 
were sent to Station WBZ, of Springfield, Mass., for rebroadcasting 
there under the auspices of a series similar to that of the Smith- 
sonian, and certain of the talks from the New England series, which. 
