iSSg.] Archceology a7id Anthropology. 185 
ancient or prehistoric. I have wondered often that this most 
feasible and certain evidence has never been sought by the 
believer in identity of the North American Indian with the 
lost tribes of Israel. 
The prehistoric race of men in Europe and America belong- 
ing to the paleolithic age — the river drift man and the cave 
dweller — were of much greater antiquity that the mound- 
builders of the United States, and the savants of Europe seem 
now to be of the mind that he passed, whether by land or sea 
is immaterial, to America, and that the Western Hemisphere 
is peopled from this stock. They think they can trace similar- 
ities of implement, art and industry in the present race of Es- 
kimos. How much it would add to the solution of the ques- 
tion to have the physical status of each and all these tribes 
settled by Anthropometry. 
The scientific value of anthropometry is for comparison be- 
tween different individuals, or tribes, or races of people. In 
order to accomplish this comparison the measurement must be 
accurate and done by the same system among all nations. If 
different systems be employed, the comparison cannot be made 
with certainty. The tendency of the American miiid to invent 
new systems should be here repressed and we should adopt as 
universal the metric system of measurement. 
Ancient Mounds at Floyd, Iowa. — On the west side of 
the Cedar River, one half mile east from Floyd, Iowa, are lo- 
cated a group of three ancient mounds. These mounds, instead 
of being located on the highest eminence in the region, as is 
most usually the case, are arranged in a slightly curved hne, 
on a high but level space, fifty feet above, and two hundred 
and twenty yards back from the stream, and midway between 
two points (from fifty to sixty rods from each) which face the 
river, and rise from twenty-five to fifty feet above this level 
space. The ground, between the mounds and the Cedar, has a 
rather gently sloping surface. At this point the stream makes 
a bend to the east, and the mounds thus occupy a position on 
the south side. The north side of the stream is occupied by a 
steep, and somewhat broken, wooded bank, which affords a 
limited though beautiful bit of scenery to this place. 
This area, as well as the surface of the mounds themselves, 
was originally possessed by a heavy growth of timber, but 
which was cleared away more than twenty years ago and the 
soil kept under the plow ever since. These mounds are low 
and circular, and twenty feet distant from each other. The 
