HKKBHAW.l ELEPHANT PIPES. 157 



enough to break it; that spoiled it for him and that was his chance to make some 

 money out of it. He could have claimed any amount, and we would, as in duty 

 bound, have raised it for hira. but he was satisfied with three or four dollars. Dur. 

 ing the first week in April, this month, Rev. Ad. Blumer, another German Lutheran 

 minister, now of Genesee, Illinois, having formerly resided in Louisa County, went 

 down there iu company with Mr. Gass to open a few mounds, Mr. Blumer being well 

 acquainted there. They carefully explored ten of them, and fouud nothing but ashes 

 and decayed bones in any, except one. In that one was a layer of red, hard-burned 

 clay, about five feet across and thirteen inches in thickness at the center, which 

 rested upon a bed of ashes oue foot in depth in the middle, the ashes resting upon the 

 natural undisturbed clay. In the ashes, near the bottom of the layer, they found a part 

 of a broken carved stone pipe, representing some bird ; a very small beautifully- 

 formed copper 'axe,' and this last elephant pipe (Fig. 18). This pipe was first discov- 

 ered by Mr. Blumer, and by him, at our earnest solicitation, turned over to the 

 Academy. 



It will be seon from the above that the same gentleman was instru- 

 mental iu bringing to light the two specimens constituting the present 

 supply of elephant pipes. 



The remarkable archaeologic instinct which has guided the tinder of 

 these pipes has led him to even more important discoveries. By the 

 aid of his divining rod he has succeeded iu unearthing some of the most 

 remarkable inscribed tablets which have thus far rewarded the diligent 

 search of the mound explorer. It is not necessary to speak in detail of 

 these here, or of the various theories to which they have given rise and 

 support, including that of phonetic writing, further than to call atten- 

 tion to the fact that by a curious coincidence one of the tablets contains, 

 among a number of familiar animals, figures which suggest in a rude 

 way the mastodon agaiu, which animal indeed some archaeologists have 

 confidently asserted them to be. The resemblance they bear to that 

 animal is, however, by no means as close as exhibited by the pipe carv- 

 ings ; they are therefore not reproduced here. Both figures differ from 

 the pipes iu having tails; both lack trunks, and also tusks. 



Archaeologists must certainly deem it unfortunate that outside of the 

 Wisconsin mound the only evidence of the co-existence of the Mound- 

 Builder and the mastodon should reach the scientific world through the 

 agency of one individual. So derived, each succeeding carving of the 

 mastodon, be it more or less accurate, instead of being accepted by 

 archaeologists as cumulative evidence tending to establish the genuine- 

 ness of the sculptured testimony showing that the Mound-Builder and 

 mastodon were coeval, will be viewed with ever increasing suspicion. 



This part of the subject should not be concluded without allusion to 

 a certain class of evidence, which, although of a negative sort, must be 

 accorded very great weight in considering this much vexed question. 

 It may be asked why, if the Mound-Builders and the mastodon were 

 contemporaneous, have no traces of the ivory tusks ever been exhumed 

 from the mounds ? No material is so perfectly adapted for the purposes 

 of carving, an art to which we have seen the Mound-Builders were much 

 addicted, as ivory, both from its beauty and the ease with which it is 



