272 
FOREST AND STREAM 
across the Don's way, and his mallet swiftly descending, 
drives the missile to one side. Then a collision; then down 
go piebald and plucky lord in the dust, whilst the rost of 
players, riding up, prepare to renew the game. In an in¬ 
stant half a dozen arc off their horses, whilst great Jotun 
supports the lad in his ponderous arms, and saying it is 
only a bit of a stun, tells some one to bring (lie big water¬ 
ing pot. Which being done, and the young fellow’s curly 
head duly watered, he comes tohimsulf, looks around some¬ 
what vacantly, rubs his pate which was struck by the pic- 
bald’s forefeet when they rolled over together, and then 
calmly asks, “ Did I save the goal, old fellow t" 
Such is Polo ; no more no less. In some such way it is 
played by our club at Jerome Park, which contains some 
English players, who, we presume, are adepts at the game. 
There is iu it an element of danger, as, indeed, there is in 
all the hardier athletic sports, and both horses and riders 
frequently appear bandaged aud swathed after a rencontre; 
but as a school for the cultivation and development of man¬ 
hood in all its attributes, nothing can equal it because it 
requires good temper, presence of mind, perfect horseman¬ 
ship, coolness of judgment, quickness of sight, suppleness 
of muscle, and unflinching nerve. A man must have these 
qualities to be a good player, and, since the game fosters, 
if it canuol create them, we may safely award it a word of 
praise without being open to the charge of admiring only 
what is novel. 
When we wrote the caption of this article, we intended 
to confine our remarks to the single object of encouraging 
the adoption of Polo by our Cavalry, especially at frontier 
posts, where the services of cavalry are so constantly called 
into requisition against well mounted Indians, who are born 
riders. The thought is not new to us, tor, by turning to our 
files, we find on page 106, vol. ii, (March, 1874), an article 
on Polo, which contains the following paragraph:— 
“ Will Polo ever be transplanted f Can it be found only 
in Thibet, India, or England ? Have we no riders in the 
United States ? Will no one pick up the gauntlet ? Are 
there no broad expanses out West—grounds near military 
posts—where our own cavalry officers, fair rough riders, 
might try it ?” 
Even now Ouster’s command is roughing it among the 
Black Hills, where whacks harder than those of mallets 
will be given and received, and where Polo practice would 
prove its value iu the effort to cope with crafty red men and 
their doughty Indian ponies. Why will not our cavalry 
regiments organize Polo clubs at once, even though the 
memberships number no more than a baker’s dozen ? We 
have readers arid contributors at nearly every frontier army 
post in the country—scores of them in all—who will read 
our injunction. Let them act upon it, and a year 
hence, when they shall have gained profit by Polo practice, 
thank us for the suggestion uttered two years ago, and now 
reiterated. What says Capt. Chas. Bendire, of the 1st ? 
Tots Press at the Convention. —Not the least pleasant 
portion of our entertainment at Geneseo was the meeting 
or so many genial brethren of the press, many of whom 
represented their clubs as delegates, as well as their papers. 
Prom New York city there were Mr. Hamilton Busbey, of 
Turf , Field and Farm, and Mr. T. C. Banks, of Bod and 
Ovn. Among the others present were, Mr. C. 8- Benja¬ 
min, of the Rochester Express-, Dr. N. Rowe, Chicago 
Field; E. L. Adams, Rochester Democrat; H. C. Daniels, 
Rochester Sunday Times; G. A. Edwards, Syracuse Stand¬ 
ard; J. Planagan, Utica Herald; Jas. Manning, Syracuse 
Courier; W. Ilucker, Buffalo Courier; N. Todd, Batavia 
Times; A. T. Norton, Lima Recorder, and others. Mr. J. 
W. Clement, of Geneseo, issued a daily paper, known as 
the Sportsman, during the week, containing a full report 
each morning of the previous day’s proceedings, a bit of 
enterprise which must have proved remunerative as it 
was in every body’s hands. 
The International Rifle Matches—T li at our rifle¬ 
men have not lost their skill was well evidenced by the 
wonderful shooting made in the match for the Leech cup 
at Creedmoor on Saturday last. Being shot at the long 
ranges and under the same conditions as the International 
matches and also the matches for the Elcho Shield, the 
great event at Wimbledon, it .affords an opportunity Of 
comparing with those events. Taking the first eight in 
Saturday’s match, their united scores show a total of 1555 
points; the winning score of the Irish team at Wimbledon 
was 1506 points, a difference in our favor of 49 points. In 
1874 the Scotch team won with 1487 points, these being the 
best match scores ever made in England. It is probably no 
exageration to say that the first eight men who shot in the 
Leech cup match on Saturday, with Col. Bodiue substituted 
for one of the younger men, would be invincible as a rifle 
team. 
To Patrons in Arrears. —In view of the change in the 
business management of this paper, we beg those who are 
in arrears for subscriptions and advertisements to pay up at 
once, so that we may square accounts to June 1st, and 
wipe off the old slate. We are- disposed to be lenient on 
account of hard limes, but some thousands of dollars are 
due us, and our friends ought to know that no stream can 
run without feeders, or forest thrive in time of drought. 
£3?- Hereafter we shall stop our paper two weeks after 
the term of subscription expires, without farther notifica¬ 
tion. 
—College journalism is becoming quite a feature in liter¬ 
ature. Not content with a weekly paper, Princeton now 
issues a bi-weekly. Harvard prints an illustrated fortnightly 
journal. _ _ 
—When Adam and Eve partook of the tree of know¬ 
ledge, did they study.the higher- branches? 
OUR CENTENNIAL LETTERS-LETTER 
NO. 1. 
INDIAN IMPLEMENTS AND RELICS OF THE STONE AGE IN 
AMERICA. 
^f'' IIE importance ot; having a good exhibition of the 
i auliquilies ot North America at this International 
Exposition was fully recognized by those in charge of the 
scientific portions of the display, and the attention of ar¬ 
checologists was early called to this feature, which invita¬ 
tion has been generously responded to. The Smithsonian In¬ 
stitution had the matter iu charge, aud solicited from their 
correspondents whatever specimens they could furnish in 
the way of objects of stone, bone, earthenware, etc., to 
include everything- possible, tending to illustrate the past 
and present history of the aboriginal races now or pre¬ 
viously inhabiting this continent, thus including what was 
strictly prehistoric in its character or relating to a long- 
past age, and what belongs to the present day. 
We shall devote our space in this letter to the prehistoric 
relics, or those that pertain to an age of which we have no 
written or even traditional account iu this country, reserv¬ 
ing for a future letter the very full and interesting exhibi¬ 
tion of the Indian tribes of the country as they have ap¬ 
peared during the last century, Of these antiquities there 
are two displays—that made by the Smithsonian, and those 
made by States, particularly Ohio. 
The Smithsonian collections are in Agricultural Hall, 
and are exposed in a score of glass cases, all under the 
care and arrangement of Dr. (Jharles Rau. There are 
shown various forms of stone axes and celts—a “celt" be¬ 
ing an axe which is not grooved about the middle; stone 
knives, and instruments for removing the flesh from hides 
preparatory to tanning; stone hammers of careful work¬ 
manship and shapely form, aud others which are simply 
convenient pebbles, but which show by their battered 
ends the use to which they have been put; scrapers, 
smoothers, and polishers used in preparation of skins, and 
the bone awls and needles with which the aborigines 
sewed; the mortars and differently shaped pestles with 
which they ground their corn; spindles, pipes, tubes, ves¬ 
sels of earthenware and soapstone; masks that were laid 
over the faces of the dead; sinkers for their fishing nets; 
large flints for spear heads; an abundance of slender, leaf¬ 
shaped, and barbed arrowheads of flint, jasper, quartz, 
and chalcedony, and some interesting casts of noted Mex¬ 
ican carvings, especially the supposed “Calendar Stone.” 
This makes a fine collection, but, considering its size and 
the amount of the resources whence it was drawn, it lack s 
anything that is remarkable, or that the American anti¬ 
quary is not already familiar with. For the purposes of 
geueral illustratiou to one who was not somewhat familiar 
with the subject, it is perhaps the best; but its rivals from 
the Western States in the Mineral Annexed to the Main 
Building, are objects of more interest to the archmologist, 
which will be of greater value to scientific visitors from 
abroad who wish to study the characteristics of our an¬ 
tiquities. 
A very serious charge is brought against the Government 
collection, and against Dr. Rau, who had the whole con¬ 
trol of its selection, to the effect that undue partiality had 
been given to' tbe property of gentlemen at Washington, 
and to those relics which would illustrate the pesuliar 
views of Dr. Rau, to the exclusion of what might militate 
against them. The circular above alluded to, inviting the 
contribution from all parts of the country of objects to 
illustrate ancient America, promised that these objects 
would all he exhibited, with due credit to the contributors, 
and afterwards go to form a part of the permanent collec. 
tion at the Smithsonian. Relying upon this many persons 
have come to the Centennial expecting to see their gifts 
properly labeled in the cases, and are surprised at not be¬ 
ing able to find them. The managers of this part of the 
exhibition are placed in an extremely unpleasant light by 
these alleged facts, and it is to be hoped that they can sat¬ 
isfy scientific men that they had good reasons for sup¬ 
pressing any private exhibits. 
The Ohio collections are contained in fourteen table cases 
in the Mineral Annex. The contributors to it are H. H. 
Hill, Thomas Gleneay, and F. Giauque, of Cincinnati; the 
Rov. 8. D. Feet, of Ashtabula; Prof. M. 0. Read, of Hud¬ 
son; Peter Neff, of Gambier; T. W. Kinney, of Ports¬ 
mouth; J. P. Henderson, of Newville, and J. S.B. Matson, 
of Shelby. The exhibits are characterized by artistic ap¬ 
pearance, and the presence of unique objects, only casts of 
some of which are to be found in the Smithsonian’s 
cases. The faults of the collection, are a lack of rude im¬ 
plements, and of those in process of construction; and too 
little discrimination between the remains of the Mound- 
builders and those of the red men. 
The first object which attracts attention here is an im¬ 
mense axe of greenstone, 16$ inches long. Near it are 
many other smaller axes of fine workmanship. The arrow¬ 
heads and spear-points shown, which are chiefly of chalce¬ 
dony, are the finest lot 1 ever saw. They are of all the 
recognized shapes, and some are so twisted or “rifled” as 
to spin when projected through the air. A few are made 
from obsidian, which must have been brought from Mexi¬ 
co into the Ohio Yalley. Articles of mica are there also, 
which must have been imported from the tops of the Alle- 
ghauies, or North Carolina, at least; and others of copper 
from Lake Superior. It is well-known that ihc aborigines 
carried on uu extensive system of barter, reaching from 
Mexico to Lake Superior, the evidences of which are every¬ 
where abundant. The ornaments of the Mound-builders 
are well represented and wcludo a variety of forms off cut 
out of a blue Silurian slate-rock which was easily worked H 
and grew harder by exposure to tin; air. Many of these ■ 
ornaments are in the form of sitting birds. The way in H 
which they were worn was long a puzzle to students, hut 
they are now thought to have been worn upon the head by ■ 
married women as emblems of maternity. Dr. Henry H 
Gilman obtained the first hint of this in conversation with H 
an old Indian of a northwestern tribe, who said they were H 
intended to typify the brooding mother-bird. A beautiful I 
idea! Since then Dr. C. C. Abbott has found them at tha I 
head in very ancient graves in New Jersey, which, from ■ 
the circumstance that they contained no warlike irnple- H 
ments, were supposed to be graves of women. All of H 
these implements, as well as the pipes, are highly polished. I 
Pipes of both the modern Indians and the mound-building I 
inhabitants are shown, the latter always carved in the H 
semblance of some animal, as of a buffalo, elk, or turtle, 
One case is devoted to an interesting lot of awls, needles, ■ 
and arrow-points of bone, and bears' teeth, upon which H 
rude carvings had been executed. No doubt these teeth H 
were trophies of the chase. There are also tally stones I 
about the size of a folded two-foot rule, with a system of ■ 
notches by which their owners kept account of game3, and I 
business transactions; curiously crescent shaped aud highly 
polished Btones, which may have been fastened upon I 
wooden handles and carried by the chiefs as sceptres; and ■ 
ornamental carvings upon flat stones which probably served 
as amulets, charms, or breast-plates. Some of these last 
contained a medallion-like carving of the human face, ■ 
which,like the few masks shown, are well done, but do 
not compare iu artistic merit with a small carviug of a face 1 
found at Marysville, Ohio, now in the possession of Dr. ■ 
Abbott. A very interesting relic is the original “Cincin- I 
nati tablet,” of supposed magical significance, but the I 
genuineness of which has been doubted. The skulls alone M 
remain to be noticed. There- are several of these in good H 
condition and disposed in advantageous positions. They ■ 
are good types of the Mound-builder’s cranium, aud all I 
exhibit the fore-and-aft shortness, and great parietal width I 
characteristic of the skulls of that race. The jaws are I 
protrudant and the top of the head is flat. In general, they I 
are slightly smaller than the Bkulls of the red-slrins, 
Such are the general features of this fine display, and I 
foreign students need not lack for material with which to 
compare the antiquities of the New, with those of the ■ 
Old World. Ohio is supplemented by similar, although I 
smaller, collections from Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, that I 
of Wisconsin being especially fine in copper implements. ■ 
All are illustrated by numerous photographs and maps of I 
those enormous structures which that strange and ancient | 
race erected all through the Ohio Valley aud northward, I 
The mind is lost in astonishment and admiration at the I 
vastness and complication of these earth-works, and I 
wonders that a people able to produce so much, should I 
not have been able to leave more intelligible and definite I 
races of their origin and career. 
In my next letter I hope to illustrate the remains of those ■ 
semi-civilized tribes, ancestors of the Moquis Indians, I 
which were discovered and studied by Dr. Hayden’s explor- ■ 
ing expeditions of 1874 and 1875, a large series of photo- I 
graphs and models of whose cliff architecture and home- I 
life are exhibited by the U. S. Geological Survey. 
Ernest Ingeusoll, 
CREEDMOOR. 
String Meeting of the National Rifle Association 
—The spring meeting of the N. R. A. was held at Croed- 
raoor last week, commencing on Thursday, and continuing ‘ 
during the two following days. The weather throughout 
was fine, but the attendance very small. The meeting 
opened with the match for the Director's badge, 5 shots oil- 
hand, at 200 yards. Major Henry Fulton and Major D. D. 
Wylie tied on 21 points, and in shooting off each made 
ceutres until the third round, when Major Fulton made a 
bull’s-eye to his opponent’s centre, and won. Major Fulton 
also won the succeeding event, the open short range match 
was the "Individual” match, contested on the following 
conditions; Military rifles' at 500 yards’ distance; special 
military rifles, 600 yards, and sporting rifles 7.00 yards’ dis¬ 
tance, 5 shots each. There were 79 entries in this contest 
and two prizes. Following are the winning scores:— 
Name. Tarda. Total.| Name. Yards. Total. 
w Reed.500 atilt. Until bone.TOO 3S 
A.H Jocelyn.700 2rU.ieorge Crouch.700 22 
G L. Morse.700 88 Charles Heiamon_500 28 
F Hyde . ..700 23 W.C. Reddy..500 81 
A. V. Canlield, Jr.700 83|T. R. Morphy.500 91 
The proceedings on Friday opened with the National Ri¬ 
flemen's Convention, which was held in the President’s 
lent, Judge Gildersleeve presiding. The clubs represented 
were the Amateur Rifle Club of this city; Jamaica Rod aud 
Rifle Association of Queens, L. I.; Hudson River Rifle 
Club, Poughkeepsie; Yonkers Rifle Association.; Parthian 
Rifle Club of Hudson, N. Y., Connecticut Rifle Club of 
Stamford, Conu.; Scottish-American Rifle Club; Seventh 
Regiment Rifle Club, and Twenty-second Regiment Rifle 
Club of this city. 
After Judge Gildersleeve had defined the objects of the 
meeting, which was to invite discussion among riflemen 
from all sections of the country as to the best means for the 
promotion of rifle practice, Sergeant J>. Chauncey of the 
Seveuth Regiment Club, offered the following resolution, 
whiclt was adopted:— 
//{Solved, That the Directors of tbe National liifle Association be re- 
nuested to direct that in all military matches, open to teams repreBenttnt; 
-loom mllot nen * liflcB wllll wulcll VOti QF* 
