156 " ANIMAL CARVJNGS. 



identity of the animal. It is also remarkable that in neither of these 

 pipes is the tail indicated, although a glance at the other sculptures 

 will show that in the full-length figures this member is invariably 



Fig. 29 —Elephant Pipe, Iowa. 



shown. In respect to these omissions, the pipes from Iowa are strik- 

 ingly suggestive of the Elei)hant Mound of Wisconsin, with the pecu- 

 liarities of which the sculptor, whether ancient or modern, might almost 

 be supposed to have been acquainted. It certainly must be looked 

 upon as a curious coincidence that carvings found at a point so remote 

 from the Elephant Mound, and presumably the work of other hands, 

 should so closely coj^y the imperfections of that mound. 



In considering the evidence afforded by these pipes of a knowledge 

 of the mastodon on the part of the Mound-Builders, it should be borne 

 in mind that their authenticity as specimens of the Mound-Builders' art 

 has been called seriously in question. Possibly tlie fact that the same 

 person was instrumental in bringing to light both the pipes has had 

 largely to do with the suspicion, especially when it was remembered 

 that although explorers have been remarkably active in the same re- 

 gion, it has fallen to the good fortune of no one else to find anything 

 conveying the most distant suggestion of the mastodon. As the man- 

 ner of discovery of such relics always forms an important part of their 

 history, the following account of the pipes as communicated to Mi*. 

 Barber by Mr. W. H. Pratt, president of the Davenport Academy 

 (American Naturalist for April, 1882, pp. 275, 276), is here subjoined: 



The first elephant pipe, which we obtained (Fig. 17) a little more than a year ago. 

 was found some six years before by au illiterate German farmer named Peter M.are, while 

 planting corn on a farm in the mound region, Louisa County, Iowa. He did not care 

 whether it w.is elephant or kangaroo; to him it was a curious 'Indian stone,' and 

 nothing more, and he kept it and smoked it. In 1878 he removed to Kansas, and 

 when he left he gave the pipe to his brother-in-law, a farm laborer, who also smoked 

 it. Mr. Gass happened to hear of it, as he is always inquiring about such things, 

 hunted uj) the man and borrowed the pipe to take photographs and casts from it. 

 He could not buy it. The man said his brother-in-law gave it to him and as it was a 

 curious thing — he wanted to keep it. We were, however, unfortunate, or fortunate, 



