292 American Association^ 



they descended from the mountains to the hot deltas of the 

 rivers and to the sea coast. This was also to be remarked in 

 Africa ; so that the distinction into white and yellow, black and 

 brown, formed no really useful classification. Jacquenot spoke of 

 three species of men ; Dumoulin of eleven, of which the first was 

 the Celto-Scyth-Arab, the meaning of which he could not divine. 

 Colonel St. Vincent made eleven species ; and Luke Bird, the 

 editor of the Ethnologist, sixty-three ; while Dr. Morton's pos- 

 thumous works made twenty families, each of which the doctor 

 plainly looked on as a distinct species. These could not all be 

 right. Again, Agassiz considered that there were at least eight, 

 and perhaps a thousand centres of creation, though there was but 

 one species ; but there were many difficulties about that theory, 

 as it would require a new miracle of creation for each supposed 

 centre ; and it was a good rule in physics not to allow new cre- 

 ations except where they were absolutely required. He conclud- 

 ed by saying that he thought the proper attitude for Ethnologists 

 to assume was to hold all theories as provisional, keeping them- 

 selves ready to be convinced by any new facts whenever they 

 appeared. 



A lengthy exposition of the arrow-headed characters of Assy- 

 ria was given by Eev. Dr. Mcllvain ; and a paper by Prof. Reid 

 was read, advocating the use of English as a universal language. 

 These papers we cannot do justice to in our remaining space, nor 

 do they projperly belong to our field. 



ANCIENT MINING ON THE SHORES OE LAKE SUPEBIOR. 



" Professor Charles "Whittlesey read a paper on the Ancient Min- 

 ing Operations of Lake Superior. After describing the geography 

 of the copper region of Lake Superior, he said that throughout 

 the country indications appeared of mining operations carried on 

 by an ancient people. -The works of these people were mere 

 open mines like quarries, never descending more than about thirty 

 feet below the surface. These mines had a peculiarity which dis- 

 tinguished them from all others, that the metal was found in 

 pure masses. These masses the ancient miners seemed unable to 

 deal with, and they appeared merely to have sought for pieces of 

 GO[t[)er perhaps of 2 lbs. weight, which they hammered out cokL 

 They seemed not to have known anything of the art of smelting, 

 though that discovery seemed the simplest thing in the world, 

 since they made use of fire to soften the stone, and so to separate 



