EXPLANATORY AND INTRODUCTORY. 17 



much, of experience in woodcraft is implied in the con- 

 struction, handling, and use of such an implement, and 

 with how many possible industries in wood it connects 

 itself. Or take the rudely-chipped flint implements of 

 " Palaeolithic " type from the gravels of the Somme, 

 in connection with the fact that an implement of 

 somewhat similar style used by the semi-civilised 

 mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley is held with 

 much probability by some American antiquaries to 

 have been an agricultural hoe, and what strange 

 revelations may we have of the primitive farmers who 

 possibly cultivated the alluvial flats of the Somme 

 Valley with such tools, while they, perhaps, built their 

 towns on hills beyond the reach of inundations. Such 

 comparisons will grow and multiply on us as we pro- 

 ceed, and I must not anticipate them here. In follow- 

 ing out these comparisons, moreover, I do not wish to 

 restrict myself to the mere similarity of implements 

 and other remains, but to present such pictures of the 

 actual life of the American Indian as may enable us 

 to place ourselves in his position, and to view things 

 from his standpoint. By thus v sitting at the feet of 

 the red man, we may chance to discover some truths 

 which the learned archaeologists of the old world have 

 not yet attained ; and in any case may hope to present 

 some interesting and instructive pictures of primitive 

 man in the old world and the new. 



