Putnam.] 
108 
[November 17, 
bucketfuls of gray sand that was brought up at the time of deep- 
ening the well. When first discovered the bone was very soft 
from long contact with water or moist earth. 
Mr. Putnam said that he accepted all the statements that had 
been made, and did not doubt that the bone came from the layer 
of gray sand at the bottom of the well, yet at the same time he 
thought that the carved bone came originally from the Marquesas 
Islands, and had in some way unknown got into the place where 
it was found. For six years he had kept the carving waiting for 
information of carvings of this character, and it was only within 
a short time that he had seen among the photographs of objects 
obtained by Mr. Voy from the Marquesas Islands several small 
bones, identical in character, shape, size, and peculiar method of 
representing the human figure, particularly the large flat face, 
square shoulders, and disjiroportionally large hands, with the 
carving from Scarborough. The peculiar pattern of ornament 
on the back of the head was also the same in the Scarborough 
specimen as in those represented in Mr. Voy’s photographs. On 
calling Mr. Yoy’s attention to the specimen from Maine, he kindly 
sent Mr. Putnam casts of two of the carvings from the Marque- 
sas Islands, with the statement that the carvings were always 
made on pieces of human arm bones, and were worn as orna- 
ments on the hair by the chiefs and noted warriors. These casts 
are now exhibited at the Cambridge Museum with the bone from 
the well in Maine, and it will be seen on comparing the three that 
the peculiar character of the carving is the same in all, and that 
the close resemblance of the three, in every respect, is such as to 
prove that they were one and all the work of the same people, 
and intended to represent a particular thing in a singularly char- 
acteristic manner. 
A letter from Mr. Charles J. Sprague was read, offering the 
following vote, which was passed : 
Voted , That the thanks of the Society be given to the Hon. John C. 
Gray, for the donation of six hundred dollars, placed in the hands of Mr. 
C. J. Sprague, for the benefit of the Collection of Lichens in the Society’s 
Herbarium. 
