690 General Notes. [ November, 
recently come to my knowledge which I think worth mentioning in this 
connection. On the Columbia River, I have found evidence of the for- 
mer existence of inhabitants much superior to the Indians at present 
there, and of which no tradition remains. Among many stone carvings 
which I saw there, were a number of heads which so strongly resemble 
those of apes that the likeness at once suggests itself. Whence came 
these sculptures, and by whom were they made? Another fact that has 
interested me very much is the strong resemblance between the skulls 
of the typical mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley and those of the 
Pueblo Indians. I had long been familiar with the former, and when I 
recently saw the latter, it required the positive assurance of a friend 
who had himself collected them in New Mexico to convince me that 
they were not from the mounds. A third fact, and I leave man to the 
archeologists, on whose province I am even now trenching. In a large 
collection of mound-builders’ pottery, — over a thousand specimens, — 
which I have recently examined with some care, I found many pieces 0 
elaborate workmanship so nearly like the ancient water-jars from Peru 
that no one could fairly doubt that some intercourse had taken place be- 
tween the widely separated people that made them. 
The oldest known remains of man on this continent differ in no im- 
portant characters from the bones of the typical Indian, although in 
some minor details they indicate a much more primitive race. ‘These 
early remains, some of which are true fossils, resemble much more closely 
the corresponding parts of the highest Old World apes than do the lat- 
ter our Tertiary primates, or even the recent American monkeys. Va- 
rious living and fossil forms of Old World primates fill up essentially the 
latter gap. The lesser gap between the primitive man of America and 
the anthropoid apes is partially closed by still lower forms of men, and 
doubtless also by higher apes, now extinct. Analogy, and many facts as 
well, indicates that this gap was smaller in the past. It certainly is be- 
coming wider now with every generation, for the lowest races of men 
will soon become extinct, like the Tasmanians, and the highest apes can- 
not long survive. Hence the intermediate forms of the past, if any 
there were, become of still greater importance. For such missing links, 
we must look to the caves and later Tertiary of Africa, which I regard 
as how the most promising field for exploration in the Old World. — 
Professor Marsh’s Address at Nashville as Vice President of the Amer- — 
. 
ican Association. i 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. — The Rev. S. D. Peet, of Ashtabula, a 
Ohio, has assumed the editorship of the American Antiquarian, a quar- 
terly journal of correspondence on American archæology, ethnology, 
and anthropology ; price $2.00 per annum. We have announced by 
the same gentleman A Manual of Archeology; being a Complete 
Analysis and Compendium of the Science, designed especially for Be- 
ginners. 
