I.PRIL 20, I< 



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SCIENCE. 



:87 



aboriginal copper was obtained were mentioned, a general de- 

 scription of the pre-Columbian status of the art of copper-working 

 given, and an account added of his own method of examining old 

 records and studying archsologic discoveries in his endeavor to 

 learn what this actually was. 



The chief end of this paper, however, he said, was to present 

 some facts which seemed to indicate active aboriginal mining oper- 

 ations subsequent to the arrival of the French in the Lake Superior 

 region. After referring to some evidence which mound specimens 

 offered on this point, he added, " But the best assurance of the 

 later fabrication of our copper specimens is to be found in the fact 

 that a vast quantity are discovered upon the surface, particularly in 

 the States bordering upon Lake Superior, while an extremely small 

 percentage come from the numerous mounds existing in the same 

 territory. I examined, last summer, 231 specimens of copper in 

 the possession of the Public Museum at Milwaukee, and 200 more 

 in the cases of the Wisconsin Historical Society at Madison. Not 

 one was found in a mound, but all were either picked up froin the 

 surface or turned up with the sod in cultivation of the fields. Now, 

 these specimens, more or less exposed as they are to the action of 

 the atmosphere, bear scarcely any indications of greater decom- 

 position than the specimens found deep in the mounds. How can 

 this be if they antedate the advent of the whites ? They are mostly, 

 if not all, implements ; and all have been shaped out of native cop- 

 per by patient handling, doubtless with the assistance, in some 

 cases, of stone moulds. .Some are of such shape as to give rise to 

 the suspicion that the workman must have attempted an imitation 

 of some tool or weapon which he had seen in the hands of the 

 French pioneers. The resemblance of the knives and chisels to 

 European ones is very marked, while several of the spear-heads are 

 indeed close copies of the old-fashioned French pike which must 

 have been carried in those days in establishing the Jesuit missions. 

 In proof of this, I saw last summer, in Illinois, one of these old iron 

 pike-heads which had been taken from a mound near by. It had 

 the same three-sided or bevelled feature, formed by a slight ridge 

 running through the centre of one side, which is so often seen in 

 our spear-heads of native copper. Many of these spear-heads also 

 have sockets, and a perforation for a rivet. Now, it is hard to 

 realize how these two ideas of a socket and a hole for a rivet, if 

 they are not imitations, can predominate, as they do, over the 

 simpler form of a tang or notch and the customary Indian method 

 of fastening ; for the Indian's first impulse in handling copper 

 would be to imitate the types of spear-heads that he had already 

 fashioned in stone. Then, loo, the imitation of these types in stone 

 would have been the simplest forms in the fabrication of copper ; 

 and the simplest must, in the natural order of things, be the first 

 that occurs to the uninfluenced native mind. That this suspicion 

 is well founded is demonstrated by the discovery of one of these 

 socket spear-heads in which a broken rivet remained. This rivet 

 proved to be iron. The specimen was ploughed up in a Wisconsin 

 field, and is described by Dr. J. D. Butler in the American A?iti- 

 guarian, vol. iv. p. 232. 



" Indian wares, we know, by successive barter or by appropriation 

 by right of war, traversed a vast and extensive territory ; yet it 

 must be noted that there is no continental distribution of this class 

 of copper implements such as is observable in other objects of 

 American art. They seemed confined almost strictly to the terri- 

 tory reached by French influence, for in this limited area they out- 

 number by a surprising majority the aggregate of all specimens of 

 a similar class, mound or surface, found elsewhere in the country." 



A series of facts were then presented and commented upon, 

 which give rise to the suspicion that the mines themselves post- 

 date the arrival of the whites. Continuing, he said, " Valuable 

 testimony bearing upon the probability of these observations is 

 furnished by Dr. P. R. Hoy of Racine, Wis. This gentleman found 

 in a grave in his State two crude pieces of mined copper, together 

 with two blue-glass beads of European make. These two lumps 

 of copper had sharp angles and ridges, showing conclusively that 

 they had been mined ; for, if they had been drift-copper, they 

 would have been more or less worn and rounded. But this is not 

 all. Among other things associated with those two little European 

 beads was a copper lance-head similar in type and fabrication to 

 one gathered from the debris of the Keweenaw mines. 



" In the light of such facts as these, the question naturally arises, 

 ' Were not the best part of the copper implements that have been 

 found in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois fabricated since the 

 advent of the French ? ' It does not seem to have occurred to the 

 writers who describe such specimens, that in those remote, unset- 

 tled parts of the country the Chippewas and Winnebagoes could 

 have possessed and worked native copper for many years without 

 the fact being generally known." Mr. Reynolds showed that this 

 was the case, even as late as the second decade of the present cen- 

 tury, by giving an extract from a letter of Satterlee Clark, who was 

 the Indian agent for the Winnebagoes from 1828 to 1830. 



The Siana Indians. 



During last season, 1887, Professor Powell, director of the Bu- 

 reau of Ethnology, directed that certain researches be made among 

 the Siana Indians of New Mexico. This tribe is located on a mesa 

 (tableland) overlooking the Rio Jemez, a stream draining the Jemez 

 Mountains, and is one of the tributaries of the Rio Grande, forming 

 a junction with that stream about eighty miles south of Santa Fe. 

 There are three tribes of communal dwellers located on this stream, 

 the Jemez, Sianas, and the Santa Anas, the latter two peoples speak- 

 ing the same dialect. No general results have been of greater in- 

 terest than those from Siana. This tribe now only numbers about 

 one hundred and twenty-five individuals, though the ruins of their 

 former habitations, which are immediately connected with those 

 of the present, indicate an extensive population. 



The habits and customs of these people are in principle much 

 like those of other Pueblos, yet their ceremonials are peculiar to 

 themselves. Their dances are all religious, one of which is the 

 celebrated snake-dance, which occurs every alternate year. This 

 peculiar dance occurs with only one other Pueblo tribe, the Mokis, 

 in Arizona. The Sianas, however, perform this dance in a se- 

 cluded spot some distance from their present village, which is so 

 accessible to travellers that they are much disturbed at this time. 

 Their other ceremonies are numerous, and are performed in sup- 

 plication for prosperous crops, for rain, and for protection from 

 disease and other misfortunes. The houses of their village are 

 composed of large, round lava bowlders laid in mortar, on the same 

 general plan of construction as those of other Pueblos. They are 

 extremely idolatrous in their worship. Their estufas are stored 

 with innumerable objects of such worship. In one may be seen a 

 large altar composed of various animals representing the rattle- 

 snake, bear, wolf, panther, wild-cat, and a few nude representations 

 of mythic human beings, which to them are their gods of music, raifj, 

 war, etc. In different directions, and not very far distant from their 

 village, are shrines for different gods, representing different great 

 elements, to which these Indians continually pray. 



The bureau secured large and representative collections of all the 

 religious and domestic objects possessed by the tribe, also complete 

 notes of their myths, religious rites, and ceremonials, which are to 

 be elaborated for one of the forthcoming reports of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology. 



Some Recent Entomological Matters of International 

 Concern. 



This was the subject of a paper read before the Philosophical 

 Society at its meeting, March 31, by Dr. C. V. Riley. Selecting 

 three species of insects which prevail in several different parts of 

 the world, and are injurious to agriculture or horticulture, he de- 

 voted his paper chiefly to a consideration of their natural history. 



The first was the white or fluted scale, — the leery a. This has 

 of late years done great injury to the orange-grove, and to many 

 other trees and shrubs of southern California. Its original home 

 was probably Australia, whence it was introduced into New Zea- 

 land, Cape Town, South Africa, and California. All the evidence 

 points to its introduction into that State by the late George Gordon 

 of Menlo Park, about the year 1868, probably from Australia, on 

 Acacia latifolia. The trees most injured by it are the acacia, 

 lime, lemon, orange, quince, pomegranate, and walnut. 



The second species of which Dr. Riley spoke was the Hessian-fly. 

 An added interest has recently been given to it because of its intro- 

 duction into England. It has long been known upon the continent 

 of Europe, and the prevailing belief has been that it was introduced 

 therefrom into the United States during the revolutionary war by 



