

590 The American Naturalist. [June, 
this heterogeneous people the name Indian was given, in misconception, 
nearly four hundred years ago, and now stands as a stumbling-block 
in the way of anthropological research ; for under the name resem- 
blances are looked for and found, while differences of as great import- 
ance in the investigation are counted as mere variations from the type. 
‘Tt is in such museums as this at Cambridge that the facts are now 
being gathered, and we may hope in time to be able to determine 
aright the complicated history of the ancient people of America.”’ 
Without sanctioning the classification of human races in North Amer- 
ica, adopted as above by Prof. Putnam, I cite with commendation and 
approval the idea expressed in the last paragraph. The average arch- 
eologist of the United States has been in times past but little more 
than a collector of Indian relics. He sought to gather or obtain rare 
or handsome objects, and these qualities measured . their value in his 
eyes. Such collections, viewed from the standpoint of the real arch- 
æologist, are of but little if any value. ‘Their real service to the 
science of archeology begins when they shall be put to the use sug- 
gested by Prof. Putnam; when, in either large or small collections, 
better in the former, they can be spread out, assorted, classified and 
divided, they may assist in determining the races of people, as has been 
attempted by Prof. Putnam in the foregoing paragraph. 
Classification of Arrows or Spear-heads or Knives in the 
National Museum.—Collectors of Indian relics have gathered in 
all times past quantities of arrow-heads, called ‘‘flints,’’ but usually 
without any attempt at classification or arrangement. The National 
Museum has sought to make a classification by which these implements 
may be recognized and described. Such an attempt was made some 
years ago, but the divisions were so close and the distinctions so finely 
drawn that it was scarcely possible to follow them. It made so many 
classes that one could not remember them all, nor identify to which one 
a given object belonged. In the classification just made the divisions 
have sought to be broadened and the lines between them deeply drawn 
and easily recognized. It is as follows: 
STONE, ARROWS OR SPEAR-HEADS OR KNIVES. 
Class—Leaf-shaped—Sub-class A. Thin and finely-chipped imple- 
ments of the form of a laurel leaf—elliptical and pointed at both ends. 
_ They correspond substantially with the French Solutreen type of the 
Paleolithic period of the Stone Age. 
Sub-class B. These may be thicker and ruder than Sub-class A. 
Some are more oval, and the bases are not pointed, but are either 

