116 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



polished, and engraved them, yet they have left no 

 connection of characters that can be interpreted as 

 conveying more than the meaning that may be at- 

 tached to a frog or a bird. As long as people are in- 

 tensely interested in archaeology and ethnological 

 studies, individuals will be met who earnestly believe 

 that a race capable of accomplishing so much, must 

 have been ingenious enough to construct a written 

 language, whether it be alphabetical or pictorial ; and 

 they will also cherish the idea that a key a Rosetta 

 Stone will yet be found w r hich shall unlock the 

 mysteries now hanging about the animal figures rep- 

 resented in the shape of mounds, and engraved upon 

 stone implements, or molded in the soft clay that 

 was to be baked into pottery. 



Some years ago the extensive collection of archae- 

 ological objects brought together by Messrs. Squier 

 and Davis in their explorations of the tumuli and 

 earth- works of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, was 

 offered for sale, and as no Antiquarian Society in the 

 United States seemed disposed to buy it, Mr. Black- 

 more, an English gentlemen of wealth came into its 

 possession by purchase, and added it to his museum 

 at Salisbury, England. The departure from our 

 shores of such a rich and varied cabinet of American 

 antiquities was regarded as an irreparable loss to the 

 nation, but the contributions of kindred articles to the 

 Smithsonian Institute, the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, and other institutions of a similar 

 character in various parts of the country, and the ex- 

 tensive and growing cabinets of a private nature in 

 almost every large town and city in the land, will in 

 part compensate for the collection which left us with 

 so much regret. Every year adds largely to the 



