THE PREHISTORIC COPPER IMPLEMENT QUESTION. 599' 



1. Austria — One station at Jan Mayen Island. 



2. England — One station at Fort Simpson. 



3. Germany — Two stations \ one on the Gulf of Georgia, the other a place 

 not yet decided upon, in the region ot the North Pole. 



4. Denmark — One station on the western coast of Greenland, 



5. Norway — One station at Altengaard, in the province of Finnraark. 



6. Russia — One station at the mouth of the Lena. 



7. The United States — Two stations ; one at Point Barrow, on the east of 

 Behring Strait, the other at Lady Franklin Bay, Greenland ; the latter is already 

 in operation. 



8. France — One station at Spitzbergen. 



There are nine other stations in the Arctic region and two in the Antarctic 

 region. There is every reason to believe that there will be one or two additional 

 Arctic stations. These may swell the list of persons engaged to over 200, all 

 taking active parts in this enterprise, which wil| cost altogether a million rubles. 

 If it be considered that besides all this the magnetic observations in the more 

 southern regions will be immensely stimulated, the importaYice and costliness of 

 the enterprise will be fully appreciated. 



The Russian expedition will undertake the heaviest part of the work. It 

 will have to traverse about ten thousand versts (6,630 miles) and establish itself 

 in an exceptionally cold region at the mouths of the Lena close to the place 

 where the lowest temperature in the world has been noted. In January the aver- 

 age temperature is 40° below zero, the point at which mercury freezes. The 

 greatest precautions will, therefore, have to be taken to prevent the members of 

 the expedition from losing their lives. It may be presumed that fortunately the 

 survivors of the Jeannette boats, who were living at the end of October, accord- 

 ing to the news of them received a fortnight ago at Irkutsk, will have been trans- 

 ported ere this to a more hospitable clime by the people with whom they had 

 taken refuge. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



THE PREHISTORIC COPPER IMPLEMENT QUESTON. 



BY PROF. H. A. REID. 



In my history of the State of Missouri, published by the Missouri Historical 

 Company, the first chapter is devoted to " Prehistoric Missouri; " and in speak- 

 ing of the mound builders I use this language: "They had no knowledge of iron, 

 nor any art of smelting copper; they merely took small pieces of the native ore 

 and hammered it cold with their stone tools until it took some rude shape of 

 utility." After this was pubHshed my attention was called to Mr. Conant's state- 



