842 The American Naturalist. [September, 
and Chiriqui, appears to assign to these ancient populations a com- 
munity of origin. 
Their language seems to confirm these ideas. The currents of the 
dispersion of this human family should have taken rise in the center of 
South America, from which they were directed from the ae and the 
northwest. 
M. Verissimo, of Para, said: ‘‘ There are two Indian families in 
juxtaposition in Brazil. Oneof these is the Tupi Guaranis, who speak 
the ngoa geral; the other is that of the Tapouis,—that is to say, the 
barbarians, to which belonged, possibly, the men of Sambaquis.’’ 
„The pottery discovered in the Isle of Marajo, at the mouth of the 
Amazon, and of which M. Verissimo presented a remarkable speci- 
men, appeared to indicate other affinities than those from the north. 
The prehistoric men of Marajo had probably come from Central 
America, and followed the coast of the Atlantic. Among the dis- 
coveries which tend to confirm this hypothesis, M. Verissimo cites the 
implements of wrought jade which were met with in Brazil, and of 
which he presented a specimen sculptured in the form of a batrachian 
or frog. 
M. Hamy observed that the figure of the object presented by M. 
Verissimo was sufficient to justify the supposition of a northern or 
western origin, as had been attributed to it by Verissimo,—that is, in 
the Antilles on the one part, in the Cundinamarca and Central America 
on the other, where abound those representations of the frog which 
have a role so important in the mythologic iconography of Central 
America, The representations of the frog in the New World author- 
izes the formula adopted by this question, ‘‘ The Hypothesis of Pre- 
historic Migrations.’’ 
M. L. Netto, of Rio Janeiro, had some words to say upon the com- 
munication of M. Verissimo, upon the Sambaquis or shell-heaps of 
Brazil, and presented a number of objects found during their excava- 
tion, and particularly a grand fetich of the form of a fish, others ot 
mortars in the form of fishes and birds, which could be nothing else 
. than the work of actual savages. As to the question of the expansion 
of jade or jadeite in South America, M. Netto was of the opinion that 
it is a phenomenon that has not yet been satisfactorily explained. 
Baron de Baye recalled and recited the theory adopted by Professor 
Putnam as to the Asiatic origin of the mineral of which these objects 
were made in Central America. 
Gosse, of Geneva, was of the opinion that the question now 
under discussion was not more advanced in America than in Europe, 




