AMERICAN ASSOCIA TION FOR THE AD VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 309 



*' Short Study of the Features of the Region of Lower Great Lakes, during 

 the Great River Age; or Notes on the Origin of the Great Lakes of North Amer- 

 ica," by J. W. Spencer, was the longest paper of the day, though it was hstened 

 to with great interest all through, and was considerably discussed. 



"On the Cause of the Arid Chmate of the Far West," by Captain C. E. 

 Button. 



Lieutenant-Governor Wm. Bross, of Illinois, read a paper entitled "Canons 

 as I Have Seen Them, with Some Thoughts as to their Origin." 



The first paper in Section D, sub-division of Anthropology, was read by 

 Professor O. T. Mason, " On Unciyihzed Mind in the Presence of Higher 

 Phases of Civilization," a most interesting document. Its author has been en- 

 gaged during the past year in collecting the statistics of Indian education from 

 the earliest efforts in that direction to the present time, under the patronage of 

 Major J. W. Powell, Chief of the Indian Division of the Tenth Census. During 

 his investigation Professor Mason was led to consider the philosophic side of the 

 subject and his results, so far as ascertained, are embodied in this paper on the 

 effect of higher on lower civilizations. 



" A Lawgiver of the Stone Age," by Horatio Hale, was read by Mrs. Smith, 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C. 



"Mound-builders' Skeletons," by Watson C. Holbrook, was next read. 

 Though a short paper it was an excellent one, closely listened to. 



The next paper was entitled "The Stone Images and Idols of the Mound- 

 builders," by William McAdams, who had present as a sort of text and illustra- 

 tion either the casts or the originals of many most valuable and rare specimens of 

 sculptured images, pipes, etc., largely owned by Dr. Snyder, of Illinois. Mr. 

 McAdams is himself an indefatigable collector and worker in the field of pre-his- 

 toric American remains. 



Among all the relics of the Stone Age, nothing is of more interest to the 

 student of ethnology, than the sculptured forms of men and animals found on 

 some of the objects taken from the mounds. 



Mr. McAdams divides these sculptured objects into four classes, represent- 

 ing, it may be, four periods of advancement : 



1. The mound pipes with a curved or crescent-shaped base forming the 

 stem, the bowl of the pipe representing some animal. These pipes are not made 

 of very hard stone, as has been generally supposed. They are quite small and 

 delicate, many of them showing both taste and skill in manufacture. 



2. This class is a much larger, and sometimes exaggerated, representation 

 of men and animals, many of them having a crouching, Sphinx-like form strongly 

 resembling some of the ancient Assyrian forms from the Nile. While some of 

 these figures have no perforation, the majority of them have two funnel-shaped 

 connected perforations, and they are in all probability used as a pipe on occasions 

 of great ceremony. Some of these images, from mounds in Illinois, and weigh- 

 ing ten to twenty pounds or more, are sculptured from hard stone, and are among 

 the finest works of the Stone Age. 



