234 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



"In this little collection you will find some points of agreement and 

 some of difference from the contents of other mounds. The cinerary urn 

 on Chart No. 2 is the exact counterpart of those delineated in the works of 

 Llewellj-n Jewett, where, as the little common caricature of the human face 

 on the same plate, was perhaps never seen before. The celts or wedges 

 have also their concord and discrepance. The three larger are of silicified 

 wood : the grain, bark and knot marks strongly resemble sycamore; some 

 are jasper-colored, others gray and yellow. I think I have never before 

 seen instruments with keener edge or brighter polish. 



"I send also for your acceptance and consideration the photographs of 

 two carved stones : the one is a copy of the disc obtained for me by my 

 friend Dr. Robinson, of Lake Washington, Miss., and which was taken out 

 of an Issaquena mound ; the other photograph is of the world-renowned 

 Toltec Calendar. The first one, with its birds, serpents, and pipe border, 

 was the moving cause of my subsequent investigations in Issaquena. The 

 contemplation of this stone excited in me an archaeological interest I had 

 never known before. My memory carried me back to the many hours I 

 had spent under the walls of the Cathedral of Mexico trying to unravel the 

 mystery of that old record of Time. I have fancied a resemblance, but I 

 cannot establish a complete agreement between the two tablets Here are 

 the eighteen pipes of the border, corresponding to the eighteen months of 

 the year, but the twenty days of the month and the five intercalaries are 

 not to be found. The thirteen hieroglyphical figures and the four zodiacal 

 signs, which as multiples give the fifty-two years of the Aztec cycle, are 

 also absent on the Mississippi stone. 



Yours very truly, 



W. Marshall Anderson." 



I hope these remarks may excite such an interest as shall lead 

 to further and immediate active investigations in our midst : there 

 are many unexamined mounds in our vicinity which would well 

 repay exploration. " The noblest study of mankind is man," 

 and the late and rapid advancement in the knowledge of Archie- 

 ology also shows it to be one of the most interesting. And as we 

 have such a fine field for investigation, in which so few laborers 

 are at work, I hope we may be able to do something to add to the 

 knowledge and advancement of this most important and interest- 

 ing study. 



