It is not within the province of this paper to discuss the question of the contemporaneousness of man and the mastodon in the western hemisphere. The existence of an artificial mound in Wisconsin, 135 feet in length, in the form of an elephant, adds much to the probability of the genuineness of the pipes above described. It is worthy of note, however, that no representations of the male elephant have as yet been found amongst the remains of man in North America. It is, to say the least, a singular fact that the most characteristic features of this pachyderm, the prominent tusks, should have been omitted both in the pipe sculptures and the "big elephant mound," if the ancient Americans were acquainted with the model. The long, slender, curved tusks, however, would be difficult to imitate either in the miniature stone sculptures or the embankments of earth, and might have been purposely ignored. These likenesses of fossil mammals acquire an additional interest, however, when we read the remarkable accounts of the discoveries in the State of Missouri and elsewhere, of deposits of bones of the mastodon in association with flint arrow-heads and fragments of pottery.2 "Such contiguity of the works of man with those extinct diluvial giants," observes Dr. Wilson," warns us at least to be on our guard against any supercilious rejection of indications of man's ancient presence in the New World as well as the Old. * * * * Whether or not those huge mammals had been known to man, during his occupation of the American continent, as his living contemporaries, their remains were objects of sufficiently striking magnitude to awaken the curiosity even of the unimpressible Indian; and traditions were common among the aborigines of the forest relative to the existence and destruction of the strange monster, whose bones lie scattered over the continent from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. * * * In all that relates to the history of man

*

in the new world, we have ever to reserve ourselves for further truths."3

Pipes of the platform type are confined almost exclusively to the section north of the Ohio and Missouri rivers, or to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. A few specimens of the curved base form have been picked up in other localities, but 1Vide Smith. Report, 1872, p. 416. The Big Elephant Mound in Grant county, Wisconsin, by Jared Warner.

'See Foster's Prehistoric Races of the U. S., p. 63.

Prehistoric Man, London, 1862, Vol. 1, p. 112, et seq.

generally, so far as I can ascertain, on the surface, having in all probability been carried from the mound region by roving bands of Indians of a more recent period. In the National Museum at Washington, are three examples, which were derived respectively from Ohio, Maryland and Illinois. Another was discovered in the valley of the Delaware river in the State of New Jersey. It is of the plain "monitor" form, made of a light-brown or chocolate-colored stone, and is now owned by Mr. Wm. S. Vaux, of Philadelphia, Pa. Hon. R. S. Robertson, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, possesses a pipe of the same form, from a mound in Laport county of the same State, which was found in connection with a copper chisel, two copper needles, four flints, some fragments of pottery and a single skeleton. Two other pipes from Southern Ohio, in the same collection, are cylindrical bowls which have been broken from the curved platforms and put to further use by drilling stem-holes in the sides. One of these shows an opening in the base where it was broken from the stem, the hole being plugged to render it serviceable. The other example has a portion of the platform still attached, which has been smoothed or polished at the point of fracture. In the collection of Dr. C. S. Arthur, of Portland, Ind., are also three curved base pipes with plain bowls, two of which were ploughed up, and the third taken from a mound, in that State.

FIG. 19.-"Dog" (?) Pipe.

In a mound at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, associated with pieces of mica, an interesting platform pipe was discovered. Hon. Horace Beach, who sends me the original, regards it as decidedly Egyptian in general appearance, and terms it the "dog (?) pipe." It represents the head of some animal, possibly the mountain sheep or goat, and is made of a soft, heavy, dark-brown stone, somewhat resembling Catlinite. The peculiarity of this specimen is that the face looks away from the smoker. As may be seen in the illustration (Fig. 19); the anterior end of the plat

form, constituting the handle, is wanting. On the upper part of the nose, and on the base, front and back of the neck, hieroglyphical lines are inscribed, which may have possessed some symbolical significance, or perhaps were simply ornamental. In a few examples of pipes of this class, the platforms have been carved in imitation of animals. Dr. J. Schneck, of Mount Carmel, Illinois, sends me a sketch of a curious specimen which was found about two feet below the surface of the earth in a mound in Wabash county, Ill. (Fig. 20). It represents a small bird about. the size of, and somewhat resembling, the chimney swallow (Chatura pelasgia Steph.), which, in those distant days, attached its nest, doubtless, to the cliffs and rocky crags. The material is a soft, yellow slate; the bird is represented on its back with wings crossed beneath, the cylindrical bowl rising from the breast, and the smoking orifice passing through the tail. Dr. Elliott Coues,

FIG. 20.-Bird Pipe, Illinois.

to whom I sent a sketch of this pipe, writes: "As is so frequently the probable case in such matters, I am inclined to think the sculptor had no particular bird in mind in executing his rude carving. It is not necessary, or indeed permissible, to suppose that particular species were always intended to be represented. Not unfrequently, the likeness of some marked bird is so good as to be unmistakable, but the reverse is oftener the case; and in the present instance I can make no more of the carving than you have done; excepting that if any particular species may have been in the carver's mind, his execution does not suffice for its determination."

Another specimen, in the collection of Mr. N. V. Johnson, of Brookville, Indiana, was found in a marsh a few miles north of that place. The material is a bluish-green stone, very hard and highly polished. Mr. Edgar R. Quick, who sends me a well

executed colored drawing of this object, writes: "The general form of this beautiful piece of work is that of a crescent with a protuberance on the outside, which forms the bowl of the pipe. The horns of the crescent form respectively the handle and stem or mouthpiece. The handle or front part is beautifully carved in the semblance of a lizard's head." (Fig. 21.)

Although many of the miniature sculptures already described are characterized by a remarkable accuracy of detail, and are faithful representations of well-known animals, the ancient artist was not always true to nature. In some of the carvings, prominent or characteristic features were often exaggerated; the heads of birds and mammals were sometimes disproportionately enlarged; in some instances to such an extent as to suggest to us the idea of caricature. Many of these sculptures were evidently

3

FIG. 21.-Bird Pipe, Indiana.

carved from memory, and errors of execution appear more frequently in the representations of those animals which obviously could not have been perfectly familiar to the sculptor. Indeed, many of these portraitures are scarcely recognizable, and it is often impossible to determine what animal the artist intended to copy. The body of the elephant pipe (Fig. 17) is much elongated and the legs shortened; defects which may be attributed to the inexperience of the workman or his lack of personal knowledge of the model; yet, notwithstanding the fact that certain archæologists have advanced the opinions respectively, that the peccary, the tapir and the armadillo were intended to be portrayed, a careful study of the image will confirm us in the belief that the elephant was the animal which the prehistoric artisan had before his mind. It may be asserted with a considerable degree of con

fidence that no representative of an exclusively exotic fauna figured in the pipe-sculptures of the mound-builders. If we accept the presence of the mammoth or mastodon amongst these carvings, the species which served as models, though now extinct, must be classed with our indigenous fauna. Their knowledge of such animals as the parroquet, the manatus, and possibly the seal and Rocky mountain sheep, does not necessarily indicate any particular migration on the part of that ancient people, but serves to show that their intercourse and commercial relations with other peoples were extensive. As has been previously remarked, however, the artists were apparently well acquainted with some of the birds, mammals and amphibia whose geographical limits were far removed from the upper portion of the Mississippi valley, but which, nevertheless, might have been met with by some of the people in their expeditions. On the other hand, many of the representations were evidently executed from descriptions or rude delineations furnished by those who had seen the originals. The mounds have produced galena from Missouri and the adjacent territory; mica from the spurs of the Alleghany or Rocky mountains; Catlinite from Minnesota; copper from the Lake Superior region; obsidian from Mexico and the Pacific slope of the United States, and marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic ocean, and also the Dentalium of the Pacific coast.1 Thus it will be seen that the trade relations of the mound-builders extended over a great extent of territory, in fact, covering the greater portion of the present United States and probably penetrating into British America and Mexico.

-:0:

ON THE FLOWERS OF SOLANUM ROSTRATUM AND CASSIA CHAMECRISTA.2

BY PROFESSOR J. E. TODD.

WITHIN a few years, a plant has been introduced into South

western Iowa, which is as unwelcome as it is interesting. It bristles all over on stem, leaves and fruit, with stout, rigid prickles. It is commonly called Texas nettle, as it is supposed to have been brought by the herds of Texas cattle, which in 1 Vide Ancient Aboriginal Trade in North America, by Dr. Chas. Rau. Smith. Rep., 1872, p. 383.

2

* Read before the Biological Society of Washington, March, 1881.