June 23, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



903 



The earliest use of the Archives was made by 

 Munoz for his "Historia del Neuvo Mundo, " and 

 by Navarrete for his "Colecci6n de los Viajes y 

 Descubrimieutos. ' ' A more pretentious exploita- 

 tion, aided by a subsidy from the Spanish govern- 

 ment, resulted in the two series of the "Coleeeifin 

 de Documentos Ingditos. ' ' This work was care- 

 lessly done, but serves to indicate the extent and 

 richness of the Archives. 



Extensive investigations have been made in 

 settling boundary disputes of the Latin-American 

 republics, and many documents have been pub- 

 lished in this connection. Several governments, 

 notably Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Dominican Re- 

 public, Mexico and Cuba, at various times have 

 commissioned individuals to study and make col- 

 ' lections of documents for the history of their re- 

 spective countries. 



The exploitation by the United States has been 

 carried on by private individuals or by institu- 

 tions, like the Carnegie Institution or the uni- 

 versities of Texas and California. This has con- 

 fined itself to describing and copying doeimients. 



A suggested plan for further exploitation is 

 based on iaternational cooperation. Each of the 

 American republics should have a director in 

 Sevilla, and these should form a board or faculty 

 for exploitation. Scholarships or fellowships 

 should be maintained by the American govern- 

 ments and universities. The directors should 

 supervise the studies of the scholars, and direct 

 the investigation, cataloguing, copying, editing 

 and publishing the documents relating to their re- 

 spective countries. 

 The Origin and Various Types of Mounds in 



Eastern United States: David I. Btjshnell, Je. 



The Indian mounds of the United States east of 

 the Mississippi (this does not include effigies and 

 iuolosures) may be divided into three classes, 

 namely: burial, ceremonial and domiciliary. 

 Burial mounds are the most numerous; they form 

 large groups in the area north of the Ohio, and 

 near by are often traces of a former village; they 

 are usually rather small, circular in outline, and, 

 on examination, reveal burials of various types. 

 But such mounds, isolated or in groups, are viddely 

 scattered over the valley of the Mississippi and 



Ceremonial mounds are less easily distinguished. 

 The term should, however, be applied to mounds 

 covering altars, and those which bear evidence of 

 sacrifices, such as have been discovered in the val- 

 ley of the Ohio and elsewhere. The great Cahokia 



Mound was probably the site of a temple, and for 

 this reason it, as well as others of this type, may 

 be considered as ceremonial structures. 



Domiciliary mounds or platforms are those 

 erected as elevated sites for habitations, or which 

 resulted from the accumiilation of camp refuse 

 during a long occupancy. They are met with in 

 Florida and along the low banks of the southern 

 rivers. These often served also as places of in- 

 dividual burials. 



The discovery of many objects of European 

 origin in some mounds, more especially those in 

 the southern, states; the many references in the 

 works of early writers to the use of mounds by the 

 Indians with whom they came in contact; and the 

 nature of the burials encountered in the northern 

 mounds, which correspond with the known cus- 

 toms of the tribes whose homes were in the neigh- 

 borhood of these groups, prove that mounds were 

 still in process of erection at the time of the com- 

 ing of Europeans, but the practise ceased soon 

 after. 



The Amazon Expedition of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania: George Byron Gordon. 

 The Amazon Expedition was sent out for the 

 purpose of procuring data respecting the relation- 

 ships of the diiferent tribes in the Amazon valley 

 and in the southern Guianas. The first investiga- 

 tion occupied six months in an unexplored terri- 

 tory between the Guianas and Brazil. Here a 

 number of new tribes were located and extensive 

 data, linguistic and ethnological, were obtained. 

 Each of the tribes was identified as belonging 

 linguistically either to the Arawak or to the Carib 

 stock. On the Uouyali in the Peruvian Amazon, a 

 number of obscure tribes were similarly studied 

 and their relationships determined. The third re- 

 gion explored was the plain between the Tapajos 

 and Xingu rivers, inhabited by the Mundurucus, 

 whose central villages were visited for the first 

 time by Dr. Earabee, the leader of the expedition. 

 This latter exploration proves that the great 

 plain above mentioned is a barren waste instead 

 of the fertOe grazing land which it was supposed 

 to be. The principal anthropological result of this 

 exploration is the definite identification of the 

 language of the natives with the Tupi stock. 

 The Buins of Yuou-Tichiyo : Constantine G. 



ElCHARDS. 



Outside of the places where once stood the pal- 

 aces of the principal chiefs of the Mixtec and the 

 residence and temples of their priests, namely, 



