522 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



In his work ou the '' Tribes of tlie Extreme Xorthveest," published as 

 vohime 1 of the " Contributions to North American Ethnology," Dr. 

 Dall indicates three archeological sections, and suggests a fourth, as is 

 inferred from the following language: 



In our archeology, as well as iu our paleontology, we must break away from 

 received ideas and nomenclature, whicli fulfill their puriiose in accelerating the 

 study of the successive epochs in Europe, but which, when applied to the diflering 

 conditions of America, to a certain extent at least fetter and confuse. Even iu 

 America the conditions are by no means so uniform as to authorize a single system 

 of nomenclature in archeology. For intelligent study we must separate at least 

 three regions — the Mississijipi valley, the Pacific slope, and the Slexican region, 

 and perhaps to these should be added an Atlantic region, extending I'rom the Chesa- 

 peake to Labrador. ' 



It would seem from this that he then was inclined to unite the inter- 

 montane region and the Pacific coast from California northward into 

 one grand section. However, iu his article on "Masks, Labrets," etc., 

 publishedjn the Third Annual Report of the Bureau, for the purpose 

 of his treatise he arranges the west coast into the following divisions: 

 " Central America and Mexico; New Mexico and Arizona; the region 

 occupied by Indians from Oregon to the northern limit of the Tlinkit; 

 the Aleutian islands; the Innuit region from Prince William sound to 

 Point Barrow."- 



It is not my intention to enter at this time into a general discussion 

 of the number, extent, and boundaries of these primary sections; yet 

 it is necessary to allude to some of them, in order that the relation 

 archeologically of the area under consideration in this volume to the 

 other sections may be understood. The data which have been ascer- 

 tained can not be considered sufficient to justify the attempt to give 

 exact boundaries to all, nor, iu fact, to any of these more comj^rehensive 

 districts; nevertheless the geographical position of the more important 

 ones may be defined with suffic^ient accm-acy for present purposes. 



A careful examination of what has been published in regard to North 

 American archeology, of the figures which have been made, and the 

 specimens collected, with special reference to their bearing on the ques- 

 tion of archeological sections, leads, in the first place, to the following 

 conclusion: That the ancient remains belong, in a broad and conipre- 

 liensive sense, to two general classes. One of these classes is limited 

 geographically to the Atlantic slope, the other chiefly to the Pacific 

 .slope, the eastern or Rocky mountain range of the great continental 

 mountain belt fi-om the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude to the vicinity 

 of the mouth of the Rio Grande where it approaches the Gulf of Mexico, 

 forming approximately the dividing line between the two areas. 



While there are manifest and marked differences in the types and 

 character of the ancient works and remains of different areas within 

 these two comprehensive sections, yet when those of the Pacific slope 

 (in which are included Mexico and Central America), taken as a whole, 



