600 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ment in a volume which is deemed the classical, or standard, history of the Iron 

 Mountain State. This book is the joint work of Prof. Swallow, the veteran 

 scientist of the State University, at Columbia ; Col. W .' F. Switzler, the learned 

 editor of the Columbia Statesman ; and A. J. Conant, of the St. Louis Academy 

 of Science. In this work Mr. Conant said of the mound-builder : "It has been 

 stated, and often repeated, that they had no knowledge of smelting or casting 

 metals, yet, the recent discoveries in Wisconsin of implements of copper cast in 

 molds, as well as the molds themselves, of various patterns, and wrought with 

 much skill — prove that the age of metallurgical arts had dawned in that region, 

 at least." 



I naturally supposed that Mr. Conant had knowledge of later facts and evi- 

 dences than I had, and hence in my article in the Review of November, 1881, 

 page 406-7, in speaking of the tiny copper-ax relic which I had found at Lexing- 

 ton, Mo., I cited Mr. Conant's statement and presumed it to be correct. But, 

 in the Review for December, p^e 490, appears a letter from Prof. F. W. Put- 

 nam, of Cambridge, Mass., sharply criticising my article. I am also in receipt 

 of two letters from Dr. P. R. Hoy, President of the Wisconsin Academy of 

 Sciences, referring to the matter, and he writes: " The quotation relating to 

 molds and cast implements of copper found in Wisconsin is entirely incorrect. I 

 have received a note from Mr. Conant in which he says flatly that^he was mistaken ; 

 and he could give me no answer as to his proof of the loose statement. * * 

 * I think it too bad that such an error should become wide spread." 



Prof. Putnam is Secretary and Curator of the Peabody Museum of Archae- 

 ology, at Cambridge, Mass., and, hence, ought to be an expert in archaeology, 

 which I do not profess to be. But I will cite the essential points of his critique, 

 and perhaps be able to throw some light on the subject. Prof. Putnam says : 



1. " May I take the liberty of asking why he (Prof. Reid) thought the ax 

 was cast, and not hammered into shape ? 



2. " Can any one give an account of the molds found in Wisconsin ? What 

 were they made of, and where are they now ? 



3. " Every statement of the melting and casting of copper by any people 

 in North America, outside of Mexico, before European contact, must be taken 

 with due caution. 



4. "I have not seen a single object made of copper from these sources that 

 I should regard as having been cast ; on the contrary, the evidence of hammering, 

 and rolling between stones, is more or less clearly shown in all by the character 

 of the surface and by the distinct lamination of the metal in places, when care- 

 fully examined with a lens." 



Reply to No. i. Because it looked like a casting; the surface has a free gran- 

 ular quality or grainy roughness, just like coarse iron castings molded in sand, 

 or the toy trinkets which boys sometimes cast from lead or pewter in a mold 

 whittled with a jack-knife in two pieces of soft silicious shale. It shows no spot, 

 dent or mark that looks as if it had ever been struck with a hammer of any sort. 



