ee 
1885.] ‘gl nthropology. 827 
cent American socialism ” in a paper of seventy-four pages. This 
monograph is a revised edition of an able series of articles pub- 
lished, in 1884, in the Christian Union. 
THE Davenrort ELEPHANT Piprs.—Mr. Charles E. Putnam, of 
Davenport, Iowa, has published a pamphlet of thirty-eight pages 
as a vindication of the authenticity of the elephant pipes and in- 
scribed tablets in the museum of the Davenport Academy of 
Natural Sciences, from the accusations of the Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy of the Smithsonian Institution. Those who have known the 
history of Davenport Academy, its struggles and triumphs for the 
love of pure science, and the extreme caution of its leading mem- 
bers, regretted that anything should appear in a Government pub- 
lication reflecting upon their veracity or honesty. Tablets are 
common enough, being made of slate and other material and 
- worn to-day by the present Indians of British Columbia and 
Alaska. So long as they do not contain outlandish and unclassi- _ 
fiable inscriptions there is nothing mysterious about them. 
the contrary, the elephant pipes are mysteries. When I try to 
put the cast which we possess at the museum with something 
else, there is nothing to put with it. Professor Henry once said 
to one of his assistants who discovered an unclassifiable speci- 
men: “That seems to stand out so unsociably that we must call 
it an ‘ outstanding phenomenon,’ and wait patiently until some- 
thing else turns up to go with it.” The last word that should 
fall from the lips of a brother naturalist is.“ fraud.” 
On the other hand, barring this indiscretion, Henshaw is just 
what Major Powell says about him. e is a very careful and 
skillful naturalist. We should hail with delight the accession of 
all such men to the ranks of archeology because they bring light 
from every side to bear upon our mysteries. It should not make 
a particle of difference to any of us whether a pipe is the figure 
of a crow or of a toucan, so long as we know just what it repre- 
We may rest assured that for a long time every mystery 
solved will be accompanied by two quite as inexplicable. 
But, really, too much account is being made of the matter. 
Squier and Davis are not overthrown. Their manatee, toucan 
and paroquet may be shot down by the ornithologist, but these 
practical gentlemen did not care a fig about such creatures. They 
made the greatest archeological survey and collections ever 
attempted in America, and their volume will indeed be a “ monu- 
ment” to their memory and to the glory of its authors for all 
time, , 
The Davenport Academy is not annihilated. Even if our 
theory should turn out true and the elephant pipe should prove a 
tapir pipe, and we should learn that tapirs once lived in the Mis- 
Sissippi valley, this grand association would survive. 
