354 The Smithsonian Institution 



"A Lepidodendron trunk three feet wide and thirty feet 

 long (Lacoe collection). 



" A series of six cycad trunks from the Lower Cretaceous 

 of South Dakota. 



" Bones representing a nearly complete Zeuglodon cetoides 

 from the Eocene of Alabama, and of which a life-sized restora- 

 tion is exhibited. 



" Skulls and limb bones of the huge Cretaceous Dinosaur, 

 Triceratops, from Wyoming. 



"An excellent skeleton of the Irish Elk, Megaceros hiber- 

 nicus, Owen." 



The collections of the Department of Prehistoric Anthro- 

 pology are thus described by the Curator, Doctor Thomas 

 Wilson : 



" There are three great stages of culture, or civilization, 

 represented in this Department, which are separated and 

 installed according to locality. 



" The first, and probably the earliest, is that of Western 

 Europe, of which the museum possesses an extensive col- 

 lection, the largest in the United States, showing the culture 

 of prehistoric man, from the earliest times down to the 

 Bronze Age and the Etruscans, where it joins history. 



"The second great division represents the territory of the 

 United States and British Columbia. This constitutes the 

 bulk of the collection, and comprises the hatchets, axes, im- 

 plements, and other objects of stone. The mounds of the 

 Ohio and Mississippi valleys have yielded large represen- 

 tations of pottery. 



"The third stage of culture is that belonging to Mexico 

 and Central America, variously called Aztec and similar 

 local names. While it comprises many stone implements, it 

 extends further and wider than either of the foregoing, hav- 

 ing jade, obsidian, and gold objects and ornaments. Its 

 pottery is fine and beautifully made and decorated; while 

 some of the ruder pieces, representing gods, especially from 



