THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 137 



Philadelphia, June 8, 1847. 



As a member of the committee of the American Ethnological Society, 

 appointed to report on the memoir on American Archaeology, by Messrs. 

 E. G. Squier and.E. H. Davis, I have great pleasure in saying, that 

 after a careful and repeated inspection of the materials in the hands of 

 those gentlemen, I am convinced they constitute by far the most im- 

 portant contribution to the Archaeology of the United States that has 

 ever been offered to the public. The number and accuracy of their 

 plans, sketches, &c, have both interested and surprised me, and it is 

 gratifying to learn that the preliminary arrangements have been made 

 tor their publication under the honorable auspices of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



SAML. GEORGE MORTON. 



The memoirs of Messrs. Squier and Davis will occupy the greater 

 portion, if not the whole, of the first volume of the Contributions. The 

 illustrations will consist of fifty-five quarto plates of the mounds, earth- 

 works, and maps of the adjacent country; also, of about two hundred 

 woofl-cuts, principally delineations of the various articles found in the 

 mounds. Those who consider no branch of knowledge of any value 

 but such as relates to the immediate gratification of our physical wants, 

 have objected to the acceptance of this memoir as one of the first pub- 

 lications of the Institution ; but it must be recollected that the will of 

 Smithson makes no restriction in favor of any particular kind of knowl- 

 edge, and that each branch is, therefore, entitled to a share of his be- 

 quest. The ethnological memoir of Messrs. Squier and Davis was 

 the first, of the proper character, presented for publication, and hence 

 it was entitled to the first place in the series of Smithsonian-Contribu- 

 tions. Besides this, it furnishes an addition to a branch of knowledge 

 which is at this time occupying the attention of a large class of minds, 

 and which cannot fail to be interesting to every intelligent person who 

 would learn something of the changes to which man has been subjected. 



It is proposed to insert in one of the volumes of the Contributions a 

 sketch of the life of Smithson. The materials for this have been 

 collected from the several volumes of the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society, and the scientific journals of the beginning of the present and 

 the latter part of the last century. The first volume "will be published 

 as soon as the wood-cuts and plates, now in the course of preparation, 

 are finished. 



Besides the memoirs before mentioned, a number of others have been 

 presented, some of which, though apparently of interest, and the product 

 of thought and labor, were not of the character required by the resolution 

 of the Board, and these have either been returned to their authors, or are 

 in the possession of the Secretary. A number of others have also been 

 provisionally adopted, or are in the course of preparation. Some of 

 these are on the most abstruse parts of physical science, and all will do 

 honor to the intellectual character of our country. Though the number 

 of original memoirs which will be found worthy of a place in the Con- 

 tributions will probably not be large, yet it will, perhaps, be best to set 



