REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



during the past year in the line of ethnology. The first in value is that 

 already referred to as having been undertaken under the joint auspices of 

 the Institution and the Peabody Museum, by Mr. S. S. Lyon, of Indiana. In 

 this exploration a number of mounds in Kentucky were opened, and more 

 than fifty perfect crania, with many imperfect ones, and a considerable num- 

 ber of skeletons, were procured. There were disinterred also about thirty 

 vases more or less perfect, a large number of stone axes, hammers, orna- 

 ments, beads, bone awls, &c, the whole filling seven barrels and four 

 boxes with extremely valuable material. The crania and bones were 

 referred to Dr. Wyman for special investigation, who reports that they 

 had been received, that he had nearly finished cleaning the skulls, which 

 would require many repairs, but that he hoped to do justice to a collec- 

 tion which affords an opportunity never before equaled of examining the 

 skulls of American aborigines. Mr. Lyon's exploration has also fur- 

 nished a series of ancient implements as well as casts of footprints 

 sculptured in the rocks. Imitations of this kind, which have been fre- 

 quently found, were for a long time supposed to have been formed by 

 the actual impressions of human feet when the rock was in a soft con- 

 dition, but subsequent investigations have shown them to be undoubtedly 

 sculptured imitations of footprints. They have occasionally been found 

 in rocks containing x>ebbles, but in these cases the pebbles, instead of 

 bearing evidence of having been pressed down into a plastic material 

 by a human foot, show clearly that they have been cut by the tool of a 

 workman. • 



Professor J. W. P. Jenks, of Middleboro', Massachusetts, who has for 

 many years been collecting objects of ethnology, has, in a spirit of praise- 

 worthy liberality, allowed the Institution to select any specimens it 

 might desire from his extensive cabinet. Prom the same place, some 

 choice objects have also been received from Mr. Sylvester, as well as 

 an interesting stone mortar and a stone axe, respectively the gift of Mr. 

 E. Shaw and Mr. IT. Sampson. Mr. Gregory, of Marblehead, has fur- 

 nished some desirable specimens from eastern Massachusetts, as have 

 also Mr. Levi Cole, of Beverly, Dr. Palmer, of Ipswich, Mr. Blake, of 

 Boston, Mr. Burr, Mrs. Bryant, Mr. Jas. T. Ames, &c. To Amherst 

 College, through Professor Hitchcock, the Institution is indebted for a 

 large number of stone implements from western Massachusetts and Con- 

 necticut. Explorations of ancient Indian graves were also made, with 

 satisfactory results, near Hingham, Massachusetts, by Professor Baird, 

 in conjunction with Dr. Brewer, Messrs. John Brewer, T. J. Bouve, F. 

 Burr, Gerrish, and Wells. 



To Dr. W. Wood, of East Windsor Hill, Connecticut, the Institution 

 is under obligations for his diligent efforts to increase its archreological 

 collections ; a number of boxes have been received from him filled with 

 articles illustrative of the primitive stone implements of Connecticut. 

 Valued contributions from an adjacent locality have also been received 

 from Mr. Andrus. Special contributions of implements previously col- 



