Holden—Aiken.] 228 [October z, 
Mr. F. W. Putnam alluded to a paper read by Col. J. W. 
Foster at the late meeting of the Association for the Ad-— 
vancement of Science, held at Dubuque, in which Col. Fos- 
ter called attention to what he considered as the typical form 
of the crania of the mound building race of the Mississippi 
“Valley. 
An abstract of this interesting paper will be found in the American 
Naturalist, and Mr. Putnam would not dwell upon the results there 
given, but he wished to call attention to the character of several 
crania which he had obtained in person from the mounds near Du- 
buque, after the session of the Association, which were nearly all of 
the long, low arched type, one being a much flatter skull than any 
mentioned by Col. Foster. 
Twenty-one of the mounds described to the Association in a paper 
by Mr. Woodman were opened by Mr. Putnam and friends, and in 
three only were found skeletons, which were greatly decayed and 
showed very great age. One mound contained three, and perhaps 
four, skeletons, the other two only one each. 
Mr. Putnam further called attention to the fact that the mounds in 
the various parts of the Mississippi Valley contained the short, high 
crania, as well as the long, flattened form, and he had been much in- 
terested in making a comparison with the shape of the skulls found in 
the mounds, and the representations of the human head in carvings 
and pottery found in the mounds not only, but in Central America 
and Peru and other parts of South America, where the same two 
types are represented. He thought that this great similarity in the 
carvings and pottery, taken in connection with the long and short 
skulls, which were probably contemporaneous in the several widely 
separated localities, was a very strong indication of the same early 
race of men having been widely distributed over the American Con- 
tinent; performed very extensive migrations from the south to the 
north, and, perhaps, the northern tribes in great part returned again 
to the south, centering finally between Mexico and Peru, and there 
attaining their greatest development; afterwards amalgamating with 
other races, or otherwise losing their distinctive characters. 
in the discussion that tollowea, Dr. J. b. S- Jackson and 
other members called attention to the fact that the identity 
or the ancient Peruvians witn the Mound Builders had been - 
