Report on the U.S. National Museimi. 423 



a tomahawk and pipe combined of iron or steel. The simplest form 

 of pipe known is that in use in Ladak and Thibet, where the natives, 

 in travelling, make a small, smooth hole in the ground, which they 

 fill with tobacco, and then make a connecting hole through which 

 they draw the smoke directly into the mouth, the ground itself 

 serving the part of a pipe. The present writer was informed by 

 Sir John Kirk that the Kaffirs in East Africa do precisely the same 

 when travelling; the ground being first wetted, then the bowl is 

 formed by the thumb being pressed vertically into the earth, and the 

 tube for inhaling the smoke is made by the little finger, which is 

 pressed in obliquely until it touches the base of the larger hole. 



Of the religious, civil, military, trade, and domestic functions in 

 which the ' calumet ' or peace-pipe was introduced amongst the 

 North American Indians, forming an important part of all such 

 ceremonies, let those who are interested to learn, read Mr, Joseph 

 McGuire's admirable memoir. We have room for only one quotation 

 by way of illustration : " In 1682, when William Penn landed in 

 New Jersey, he received the lighted calumet or pipe, which was 

 smoked out of by all ; the great sachem first taking a whiff, then 

 William Penn, and subsequently the sachems and warriors and 

 squaws of every tribe. A second smoke closed the bargain for the 

 purchase of land ; and 300 tobacco pipes, 100 hands of tobacco, 

 20 tobacco boxes, and 100 jew's-hmys were a portion of the articles 

 given in exchange " (p. 461). We had no idea that the jew's-harp, 

 or indeed any other musical instrument, had been ' traded ' by the 

 Quakers to the North American Indians. It suggests that our quiet 

 friends must have secretly had a taste for music, even two hundred 

 years ago ! 



(C) The next memoir is a catalogue illustrating the properties 

 of minerals, by Wirt Tassin, Assistant Curator, Department of 

 Mineralogy, Smithsonian Museum. 



The plan of arrangement followed deals with (1) chemical 

 mineralogy, such as the chemical composition or atomic structure 

 of a mineral and the chemical relations of the several kinds of 

 minerals ; and (2) physical mineralogy, which treats of those 

 properties relating to form or molecular structure of a mineral, 

 and the action of the various physical forces upon the several 

 kinds of minerals. 



Under chemical mineralogy the author treats of the elements, and 

 explains that all minerals are composed of either an element alone 

 or two or more elements in combination; that such combinations 

 of simple substances may produce a new substance, differing from 

 and possessing properties not the mean of those of its constituents. 

 This is illustrated by the gases hydrogen and oxygen, which under 

 proper conditions combine to form water, a liquid. Then follow 

 examples of various minerals, as zinc and its combinations, tin 

 and its combinations, lead and its combinations, sulphur and its 

 combinations, iron and its combinations, and so on. The author 

 next gives types of minerals and examples of native elements, as 

 carbon, sulphur, the metals platinum, mercury, copper, silver, and 



