Sig o o General Notes. [November, 
Tue Davenport AcADEMy.—The Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Davenport, Iowa, has just issued Part 11 of Vol. 11, from July, 
1877, to December, 1878, and Part 1 Vol. 111, to January 1, 1879. 
Wherever Prof. J. D. Putnam and Dr. C. C. Parry are to be found, 
one reasonably expects to hear of entomology and botany, and 
the volumes before us are largely indebted to these gentlemen for 
what they contain of lasting value. A goodly space, however, is 
devoted to what immediately concerns this department, as the fol- 
lowing list of papers will show: 
VOL, irs 
Exploration of Mounds on the farm of Col. Wm. Allen. W. H. Pratt. 
Examination of a large Mound in Jackson county, Iowa. Rev. J. Gass. 
A review of the published statements regarding the Mound at Payson, Utah. 
By Dr. E. Palmer. 
Inscribed Rocks in Cleona Township. Rev. J. Gass. 
Report on the Mounds of Jackson County. Rev. J. Gass. 
Left-handedness in the City Schools. W. H. Pratt. : 
ound No. 11, Cook’s farm, and an Inscribed Tablet. C. E. Harrison. 
On the East Davenport Mounds, A. D. Churchill. 
o near Moline, Ill. Rev. J. Gass and Dr. R. J. Farquharson. 
Exploration of Indian Graves. Rev. J. Gass. 
Elephant and Bear Pipes, illustrated. 
Most of these communications are, for the present of local 
interest. The time will soon come, however, when these special 
labors will be generalized into a consistent system embracing the 
archæology of our entire continent. On pages 156-162, Vol. 11, 
Mr. Pratt describes shell beds in the vicinity of Davenport, which 
he considers to be of natural formation. It would be well for 
some of our shell-heap friends to look into the matter. To dis- 
cover that natural causes had coöperated with man in building 
mounds and shell heaps, would affect materially our theories con- 
cerning both. Dr. Palmer, pages 167-172 takes entirely too 
- much notice of a canard concerning giants and mummy wheat. 
_ The description of the mode of building up the mound is excel- 
lent, and Dr. Palmer has the credit of being the first to draw 
attention to these tent mounds. It is to be sincerely hoped that 
no respectable journal will hereafter help to propagate archæo- 
logical weeds. The short paper by Mr. W. H. Pratt on left- 
handedness, p. 186, is an excellent contribution to a special sub- 
ject. The paper of Mr. Harrison, pages 221-224, touches on a 
topic of absorbing interest. The late Prof. Henry was in the 
habit of calling all observations which did not readily fall ie 
some known class, outstanding phenomena. The tablets o 
Davenport and the more recently discovered elephant pipes are, 
at present, outstanding phenomena. We may provisionally enu- 
merate the groups of objects in one of which they must go: i 
It has been said that they are downright frauds. The veracity 0! 
_ the many scientific gentlemen in the Academy which has been 
staked upon the genuineness of the finds, forbids such a conclu- 
