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procured, and how is it transported ? what tools are used for 
digging and carrying ? give approximate sections and an 
estimate of the number of men, women and children 
employed, and the amount of work done in a given time. 
Are there other materials than earth employed? 2. Is any 
piling employed ? and, if so, how driven ? 3. If palisading is 
used, how are the trees prepared and fixed in the ground ? 
what is the mode of entrance and its defence ?—What is the 
usual manner of constructing bridges ? (See COMMUNICA¬ 
TIONS, No. LXVIII.) 
J. E. 
No. XXII.—WRITING. 
The expression of ideas by graphic signs has two bearings 
on anthropology : first, the use of marks, pictures, &c., for 
record and communication preserves stages in that course of 
development which leads through full picture-writing to 
phonetic and alphabetic writing ; second, when an alphabet 
of any kind is in use, it usually shows resemblance to that of 
other districts, proving that they all must have had a common 
origin ; and it is an essential element in the history of any 
tribe or nation to discover from what country it obtained its 
alphabet. With the alphabet, it is probable that it derived 
other and not less important parts of its civilization. 
1. Do any methods of the nature of writing exist ? 
2. When it is desired to send a message to a distance, to recruit 
a war party, to record numbers, to preserve the name and 
feats of a dead warrior, &c., does any method exist of tying 
knots in a string, making notches in a tally, figures on wood, 
bark, or stone? 3. Do such marks exist on the rocks in the 
neighbourhood, as if made for the purpose of record? 
4. Are pictures or carvings made for the purpose of communi¬ 
cation or record, as distinct from mere ornament ? 5. If so, 
does the picture simply indicate an object such as it repre¬ 
sents, i\e., is the system one of picture-writing ? 6. Or is any 
