HEN8UAW. 



ERRORS OF IDENTIFICATION. 



147 



examination of the originals would have been preferable, yet, in as much 

 as the Smithsonian Institution contains casts which attest the general ac- 

 curacy of the drawings given, and, as the illustrations by other authors 

 aiford uo higher idea of their artistic execution, it would seem that any 

 criticism apijlicable to these illustrations must in the main apply to the 

 originals. With reference to the casts in the Smithsonian collection it 

 may be stated that Dr. Ran, who had abundant opportunity to acquaint 

 himself with the originals while in the possession of Mr. D avis, informs 

 the writer that they accurately represent the carvings, and for purposes 

 of study are practically as good as the originals. The latter arenas is 

 well known, in the Blackmore Museum, England. 



Fig. 26. — "KattU'snake," from Squier ami Davis. 



Without going into further detail the matter may be summed up as fol- 

 lows : Of forty-five of the animal carvings, including a few of clay, which 

 are figured in Squier and Davis's work, eleven are left unnamed by the 

 authors as not being recognizable; nineteen are identified correctly, in 

 a general way, as of a wolf, bear, heron, toad, &c. ; sixteen are demon- 

 strably wrongly identified, leaving but five of which the species is cor- 

 rectly given. 



From this showing it appears that either the above authors' zoological 

 knowledge was faulty in the extreme, or else the mound sculptors' ability 

 in animal carving has been amazingly overestimated. However just the 

 first supposition may be, the last is certainly true. 



