450 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 481. 



recognition, which was freely granted only 

 after Sir Joseph Prestwich's visit to Abbe- 

 ville in 1859. The eoliths are passing 

 through a similar struggle with increasing- 

 ly brighter prospects of success. It was 

 also Prestwich who came to their rescue at 

 a critical time. Rutot, of Brussels, is their 

 most powerful living exponent. Mr. Mac- 

 Curdy made important collections last sum- 

 mer both in Belgium and in southern Eng- 

 land. The eoliths found in Belgium came 

 from a series of the oldest Quaternary de- 

 posits. The specimens found in patches of 

 old southern drift which cap the highest 

 levels of the Kentish Chalk Plateau are still 

 older. If the chipping on them is artificial, 

 it was done by Tertiary man. 



This paper was discussed by W J McGee, 

 who said that much of the material from 

 the region under consideration was of such 

 a character that in many eases it was hard 

 to determine whether the chipping was 

 really the work of man or of natural 

 agencies. 



Danish Museum of Archeology: George 



Grant MacCuedt. 



The present system of museums of north- 

 ern archeology has been in force since 1880. 

 The center of the system is the unrivaled 

 collection of Danish antiquities in the Na- 

 tional Museum at Copenhagen, that alone 

 has enough material from which to write a 

 fairly complete accoimt of northern arche- 

 ology. Its branches are the ten provincial 

 museums. Seven of these are in Jutland 

 — the largest being at Aarhus— and one 

 each in Fiinen, Laaland and Bornholm. 

 Each provincial museum receives annually 

 1,000 kroner ($280) from the state. In 

 return for this subsidy the museums may 

 be called upon at any time to relinquish 

 important specimens that are wanted for 

 the national collection at Copenhagen, and 

 the director of the national collection is 

 ex officio advisory director of all the pro- 



vincial museums. The latter are not al- 

 lowed to excavate without a permit from 

 the National Museum authorities, and are, 

 of course, reimbursed for such specimens 

 as are given over to the Copenhagen Mu- 

 seum. At the time of Mr. MacCur.dy's 

 visit to Denmark, Dr. Sophus Miiller, the 

 director of the National Museum, was 

 making his annual tour of the provincial 

 museums. 



While the system is, on the whole, satis- 

 factory, it is defective in so far as it tends 

 to discourage competition. There is no 

 incentive to local pride, hence the provin- 

 cial treasuries are seldom augmented by 

 gifts from private citizens. 



The Caholcia and Surrounding Mound 

 Groups: David I. Bushnell, Jr. 

 BeloAV the mouth of the Missouri, for a 

 distance of some sixty or seventy miles, the 

 Mississippi is bordered on the east by the 

 rich alluvial plain to which the name Amer- 

 ican bottom is generally applied. Near the 

 center of this area is the largest earthwork 

 in the United States, the Cahokia Mound, 

 which has four terraces and rises to a 

 height of 100 feet above the original sur- 

 face. Its greatest dimension is from north 

 to south, 1,080 feet ; its width from east to 

 west is 710 feet; area at base about four- 

 teen acres. Cahokia is surrounded by a 

 group of more than seventy lesser mounds. 

 The mounds of this group are of two 

 classes, conical and truncated rectangular 

 pyramidal. One and six tenths miles west 

 of Cahokia is a group of five mounds. Ex- 

 tending in a southwesterly direction is a 

 chain of mounds terminating in a group. 

 Twenty-six mounds formerly existed at a 

 place on the bh;ff opposite these mounds. 

 They wei'e destroyed some years ag'o and 

 are now covered by houses which form a 

 part of St. Louis. The slope of the bluff 

 eastward from the Cahokia group appears 

 to have been one extensive burial ground. 



