AN AZTEC CALENDAR. 669 
tion was discovered. The surface of the wood of which the whirl was formed 
had apparently been charred and then ground down to the required size and 
shape by rubbing it upon sandstone. A shaft of reed, similar to bamboo, a 
species entirely unknown in that region at this time, still remained in the whirl. 
It had been broken by the ancient workman, and neatly mended by winding 
about it a piece of fine twine. The ends of this twine being examined under the 
microscope, disclosed the fact that its fiber was of very fine human hair. Articles 
of wood, corn-cobs and even the perfect grains of corn, walnuts, bones of elk, 
antelope, and wolf, portions of wearing apparel of a fabric resembling the mum- 
my cloth of Egypt, but made from material unfamiliar to the explorers, and 
other perishable articles were found in abundance buried in the piles of debris 
which partially filled these deserted homes, and would at first thought, seem to 
indicate somewhat recent inhabitancy. On the other hand, however, the pre- 
servative qualities of the atmosphere of this region are remarkable, and it is the 
belief of the explorers that centuries have elapsed since the last of the departed 
race or races occupied these old cities and villages as houses. 
The absence of the weapons of war, of works of defense other than such as 
are constituted by the selection of almost inaccessible localities, of temples or 
idols, of hieroglyphics or pictures, together with the durability and solidity of 
the dwellings, so different from anything to be found of the handiwork of exist- 
ing uncivilized races of that region, and the wide extent of these ruins, indicat- 
ing the existence of allied races covering large portions of the present territories 
of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as northern Mexico, are the elements 
of the problems involved in the origin, history, and disappearance of these races ; 
problems which seem no nearer solution than when Coronado, nearly 400 years 
ago, made a raid for the purposes of conquest, among these places, and through 
his priests gave to the world the first meagre accounts of them — then as now, 
vacant and ruined. — National Republican. 
AN AZTEC CALENDAR. 
At a recent meeting of the California Academy of Sciences, held at San Fran- 
cisco, Eusebio Molera, a graduate of the University of Madrid, who has distin- 
guished himself by his antiquarian researches, read a paper on the Aztec Calen- 
dar, or Mexican calendar stone, from which an insight has been obtained to the 
extent of the astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs. 
The stone was unearthed in the City of Mexico on the 17th of September, 
1790, and was placed in the base of one of the towers of the cathedral, where it 
remains to this day. The stone is eleven feet nine inches in diameter, and orig- 
inally weighed twenty-four tons. The conjectures of a number of antiquarians 
in relation to this object were revived by Molera, who described its prominent 
characteristics by means of a painting of the same size as the original, which 
was prepared by himself. The central figure was a picture of the Sun's face, a 
