182 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



Mrs. J. G. Bruff, Washington, District of Columbia, sent a large 

 collection, principally from the District of Columbia and vicinity, 

 embracing paleolithic implements, rude notched axes, hammer-stones, 

 pestles, arrow and spear-points, scrapers, polished stone hatchets, 

 drilled ceremonial objects, discoidal stones, potstoue vessels, etc.; 1,487 

 specimens. (Ace. 223U8.) 



This collection, which represents the archaeology of the District fairly 

 well, is the result of many years' work on the part of Mr. Bruff, and the 

 specimens are labeled with great accuracy as to locality, date of hud, 

 and other facts which might be of interest to the student. 



The curator deposited a collection of archaeological specimens ob- 

 tained by him during his visit to the International Exposition, at Paris 

 in 1889. The greater portion consists of palaeolithic implements of the 

 Chelleen type, although a number of flint-points and flakes, and a mass 

 of drift-deposit containing flint implements, etc., were obtained; also 

 four jars in which are exhibited the sand or gravel forming the differ- 

 ent layers of the river drift at Chelles, these last showing a difference in 

 color and fineness according to depth. In addition, a number of palaeo- 

 lithic implements, surface finds, from St. Acheul, Poitou, and Coussay, 

 France, and one each from Highfield, Ightham, Buley, and the " Stone 

 Pits," Kent, England (B. Harrison). The neolithic objects received in- 

 clude flint cores and flakes — some very large — from the workshops at 

 Grand Pressigny and Posay, France, and from the Grotte de Chaleur,, 

 Belgium. Also obsidian cores from the He de Milo, Greece, and frag- 

 ments of pottery from Bussia. A bronze hatchet and a piece of copper 

 (part of an implement) from Peru, complete the list ; 99 specimens. 

 (Ace. 22523.) 



W. E. Meyer, Carthage, Tennessee, gave a collection containing frag- 

 ments of human bones, shell beads, fragments of shell, bones and teeth 

 of small animals, pieces of stalagmitic formation (?), and flint chips from 

 caves in the vicinity of Carthage. (Ace. 22771.) In his letter of trans- 

 mittal he says : 



The human bones were found in a small cave on a river bluff, the entrance to which 

 has been nearly closod by rock falling from above. They were scattered all through 

 the dirt floor of the cavern and had no regular arrangement, neither were they found 

 in such positions as to indicate burial (at least so it appeared to me). At the farthest 

 extremity of the cave there is an opening— closed now — which communicated with 

 the top of the bluff. I do not think all of the bones were washed iu, for we found a 

 few in such positious that it would seem impossible. The animal bones came from 

 another cavern, also on the face of a river bluff, and in the dirt floor at the depth 

 indicated. 



From Messrs. Bangs & Co. (739 and 741 Broadway, New York, New 

 York) the following objects were purchased for the Museum:* Arrow 

 and spear-points, .scrapers, knives, perforators, large spade-like imple- 

 ments (chipped), flint hatchets — some with ground cutting edge — pol- 

 ished hatchets, grooved axes of hematite, pierced tablets, and boat- 



* Thia accession is part of a collection placed on sale by Mr. Norman Spang. 



