IT AMERICAN MUSEUMS 57 



stone walls, so as to resemble mediaeval castles or eastern 

 rock-cities ; and its ruined towns of the Zuni and Pueblo 

 Indians scattered over the vast desert-regions of Arizona 

 and New Mexico. Some of these are highly interesting 

 and remarkable. The ruined pueblo of Penasca Blanca 

 in the Chaga Canon, New Mexico, forms a regular oval 

 of about five hundred by four hundred feet, the houses 

 being symmetrically placed around the outside so as to 

 enclose an open area, which contains a depression, 

 probably a pond for storing water. The walls of the 

 nouses are regularly and solidly built of stone. Equally 

 remarkable is a large round tower about forty feet in 

 diameter with double walls, the space between which is 

 divided into numerous small rooms. This is in ruins, but 

 was evidently well constructed of good stone masonry. 

 Accurate models of these and many other structures 

 exist in the National and Smithsonian Museums. 



The preceding brief outline of the materials which 

 exist in American Museums for the study of prehistoric 

 man are sufficient to show that they are not inferior in 

 extent, variety, and interest to those of Europe ; while if 

 we extend our survey to the marvellous prehistoric 

 remains of Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Bolivia, 

 their pyramids and temples, their ruined cities, their 

 cemeteries, their highways and aqueducts, their highly 

 characteristic sculpture, their fantastic pottery, and their 

 still undeciphered hieroglyphics, we may claim for the 

 American continent a position, as regards the early history 

 and development of the human race, hardly inferior to 

 that of the whole of the Eastern hemisphere. A body of 

 earnest and painstaking students are now engaged in the 

 collection, preservation, and study of these various classes 

 of remains ; and at the same time a vast mass of most 

 valuable material is being brought together relating to 

 the manners and customs, the tools, weapons, and orna- 

 ments, the tribal relations, the migrations, the folk-lore, 

 the religions, and the languages of the aboriginal inhabi- 

 tants. Already much light has been thrown on the 

 prehistoric remains by their comparison with objects still 



