April 3, 1SS5. 



SCIENCE 



267 



plates are more suitable than bromide for obtaining an 

 atmospheric corona, just as Mr. Huggins has claimed 

 that they are more suitable for taking a solar one ; 

 hence I think one must not rely too much on the 

 ultra-violet region sensitiveness of the chloride plate 

 for a separation of the two ; lastly, though my experi- 

 ments fail to corroborate Mr. Huggins's results, they 

 do not, of course, show that his corona may not be 

 solar, but merely indicate that under very favorable 

 circumstances I could obtain no trace of it. 



I have before me a print made from a negative by 

 Dr. O. Lobse in October, 1878, showing effects very 

 similar to those obtained by myself, except that his 

 view was not taken during an eclipse. He considers 

 that the halo is wholly atmospheric, and not coronal. 



W. H. Pickering. 



Photographic laboratory, Mass. inst. technology. 



The voice of serpents. 



The interesting observations presented by Prof. 

 C. H. Hitchcock on this subject, in No. 104, and the 

 additional experiments made by Mr. H. H. Nichol- 

 son upon a specimen of Pituophis Sayi. and recorded 

 in No. 109, open a very interesting field for research. 



The Indians are the mound-builders. 



In No. 108 of Science there is a review of 'Prehis- 

 toric America,' — a work by the Marquis de Nadail- 

 lac, — and at the end of the review an editorial note 

 which has challenged my attention. You say that 

 the review " seems to maintain the identity of all peo- 

 ples that ever inhabited the American continent up to 

 the advent of Europeans," and base this upon the 

 opinions of the reviewer, that the mound-builders 

 were no other than the Indian tribes found in the 

 country in post-Columbian time, and their ancestors. 

 In this respect I most heartily agree with the opin- 

 ions of your reviewer. There has never been pre- 

 sented one item of evidence that the mound-builders 

 were a people of culture superior to that of the tribes 

 that inhabited the valley of the Mississippi a hun- 

 dred years ago. The evidence is complete that these 

 tribes have built mounds within the historic period ; 

 and no mounds or earthworks have been discovered 

 superior in structure or contents to those known to 

 have been built in historic times. The theory that 

 the country was inhabited by a people highly organ- 

 ized as nations, and having arts of a higher grade 

 than those belonging to tribal society, is wild and 



LEFT LATERAL VIEW OF THE HEAD OF PITUOPHIS SAYI BELLONA, LIFE-SIZE. 



(From American naturalist.) 



THE MOUTH PARTS FROM 

 ABOVE. 



a, tongue-sheath; b, epiglot- 

 tis; c. rima-glotidis. 



If it has not already met your correspondents' eyes, 

 it may not come amiss for me to invite their atten- 

 tion to a very interesting and important article relat- 

 ing to this subject, contributed by Dr. C. A. White 

 to the January number of the American naturalist 

 for 1888. Dr. White here very concisely describes 

 the peculiar structure of the vocal organs of Pituo- 

 phis, which, so far as I am aware, he is the first to 

 have noticed. 



The character of the voice of the bull-snake is well 

 known; and Dr. White clearly shows in his article 

 how the peculiar form of the epiglottis contributes 

 to its production. 



It may not be out of place to reproduce the draw- 

 ings here, that I was permitted to make for Dr. 

 White, illustrating this structure of the epiglottis in 

 Pituophis. They may be of interest to those who 

 have the opportunities of seeing the pages of Science, 

 where the Naturalist may not be available. 



In again calling attention to this structure and its 

 situation, it may induce others to make further in- 

 vestigations into a very inviting subject. 



Pv. W. Shufeldt, U.S.A. 



Fort Win gate, X.M ex., 'March 19. 



baseless ; and the fruit of that theory is nothing but 

 exaggeration and false statement. 



All this being granted, your own conclusion, which 

 is not found in the statements of the reviewer, is al- 

 together inadmissible. " The identity of all peoples 

 that ever inhabited the American continent, up to 

 the advent of Europeans," is not and can not be held 

 by any intelligent anthropologist, except in some very 

 broad sense ; as, for example, that they belonged to 

 the human race, or that they occupied one continent. 

 In respect to mythologies, languages, and institu- 

 tions, there are, and have been, many distinct peo- 

 ples; and in respect to arts there is much diversity, 

 though arts travel from people to people with the 

 greatest ease. At the present time we cannot have 

 fewer than seventy distinct peoples among the tribes 

 of North America, and in antiquity the number 

 may have been greater. The mound-building peoples 

 did not constitute a distinct race. Many peoples have 

 built mounds on this continent, and some continue 

 to build mounds to the present day. The writer has 

 seen a tribe of Indians erect a mound. 



J. W. Powell. 



Washington, March 24. 



