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Univ. OF 
Toronto 
Library 



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THE 



american museum 
journal'""" 



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EDITED BY 
MARY CYNTHIA DICKERSON 



VOLUME XIV, 1914 






NEW YORK CITY 



Published from October to June, by 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 

1914 



An illustrated magazine devoted to the advancement of Natural His- 
tory, the recording of scientific research, exploration and discovery, 
and the development of museum exhibition and museum influence in 
education. Contributors especially from the scientific staff, ex- 
plorers apd members of the American Museum of Natural History 



' A I i 



FREE TO MEMBERS OF 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 
OF NATURAL HISTORY 



I 

I 



PRINTED BY THE COSMOS PRESS 

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 

1914 



CONTENTS OF VOLUME XIV 

January 

The Story of Museum Groups, Part I Frederic A. Lucas 3 

A Chapter of Ancient American History Herbert J. Spinden 17 

Fish Exliibits in the American Museum Bashford Dean 33 

Some Fish of the Middle West D wight Franklin 37 

The Blind in the American Museum Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 39 

Museum Notes 43 

February 

The Story of Museum Groups, Part II Frederic A. Lucas 51 

Hunt in a Big Game Reservation Walter Winans 67 

Importation of Birds W. DeW. Miller 69 

The Algonkin and the Thunderbird Alanson Skinner 71 

New Storage Rooms Pliny E. Goddard 73 

Teaching in the American Museum Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 76 

Museum Notes 77 

March 

Charles R. Knight — Painter and Sculptor of Animals The Editor 83 

Collecting in Cuba Frank E. Lutz 99 

Maya Art and its Development George Grant MacCurdy 107 

The Wild Ass of Somaliland Carl E. Akeley 113 

Museum Notes 118 

April 

The American Beaver Frederic A. Lucas 123 

The Broom Fossil Reptile Collection Henry Fairfield Osborn 137 

Further Observations on South African Fossil Reptiles Robert Broom 139 

Resolutions to Professor Albert S. Bickmore on the Occasion of his Seventy-fifth Birthday 144 

A Letter from Theodore Roosevelt, Patron of the Museum's South American Field Work 145 

Bandelier — Pioneer Student of the Ancient American Races Clark Wissler 147 

What One Village is Doing for the Birds Ernest Harold Baynes 149 

The Charles S. Mason Collection Alanson Skinner 157 

Plea for Haste in Making Documentary Records of the American Indian. . . .Edward S. Curtis 163 

Museum Notes 166 

May 

New African Hall Planned by Carl E. Akeley The Editor 175 

The Dawn Man of Piltdown William K. Gregory 189 

Copper Deposits in Arizona James Douglas 201 

Ancient Pottery from Nasca, Peru Charles W. Mead 207 

The Crocker Land Expedition [Editorial Introduction and Quotation from Letters] 209 

Museum Notes 213 

October-November 

The Museum and the American People Henry Fairfield Osborn 219 

Series of Twelve Photographs on Forest Conservation Insert between 220 and 221 

Forestry in the State of New York The Editor 221 

Palaeolithic Art in the Collections of the American Museum George Grant MacCurdy 225 

New Faunal Conditions in the Canal Zone H. E. Anthony 239 

The Copper Queen Mine Model Edmund Otis Hovey 249 

Along Peace River Pliny E. Goddard 253 

"My Life with the Eskimo" by Stefansson — A Review Herbert L. Bridgman 261 

Shell Collection in the American Museum L. P. Gratacap 267 

Museum Notes 269 

December 

American Museum Whale Collection Roy C. Andrews 275 

Kitchen Middens of Jamaica G. C. Longley 295 

An Episode of a Museum Expedition Carl E. Akeley 305 

News from the Crocker Land Expedition , Edmund Otis Hovey 309 

Museum Notes 310 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



African hall, 178, 179, 181, 186, 187 

Akeley, C. E., 174, 185 

Allosaurus, 86 

Arsinoitherium, 89 

Ass, Wild, 112, 115, 117 

Aurochs, 66 

Bat cave, 244, 245 

Baynes, E. H., 152, 153, 155 

Beaver, 124-135; group, 126; habitats, 127-129, 

131, 132, 134 
Bickmore, A. S., 122 
Bird bath, 154; houses, 150, 151, 155 
Blind in American Museiun, 41, 42 
Bowfln group, 32, 34, 35; habitat, 38 
Buffalo, 183 

Cherrie, G. K., 214 

Chichen Itz&, Panorama of, 19; Ruins, 16, 18, 19, 

21, 22, 24, 25, 27; Sculptures, 17, 23, 26-31 
Choate, J. H., 170 
Copper deposits, Maps of, 202, 203 
Copper Queen mine model, 248, 250 
Cuban expedition, 100-106 

Deer, cover (Jan.), 54, 63, 64 

Dicynodon laticeps, 142; leontops, 143; moachops, 

140-141; planus, 142; platyceps, 136; psit- 

tacops, 141 
Diplodoeus, 98 
Douglas, James, 172 

Eagles, Group of golden, 4 

Elephant studio, 185 

Elephants, back and front covers (May), 12, 96, 

176, 184. 185 
Endolhiodon uniseries, 140 
Eskimo, Life with, 261-265 

Fiala, Anthony, 214 

Fish (painting) opp. 96 

Flower, W. H., 6 

Forestry scenes, cover (Oct.-Nov.), inserts, opp. 

221 
Fossil reptiles, 136. 138-143 
Framework for elephant, 12; for whale, 278 

Groups, Arab courier attacked by lions, 8; Bird, 
2,4,7,10,56,57.60; Bison. 15; Bullfrog. 58; 
Deer. 54. 63, 64; Fish, 32. 34, 35. 36. 50, 
63; Lizard, 59; Monkey. 55; Octopus, 53; 
Orang-utan, 11 

Harper, Frank. 214 
Harpoon gun, cover (Dec.) 
Harpy eagle with macaw, 95 
Hippoi>otamu8 group. Model of, 182 

leklhyotauruB, 87 
Indians, Slavey, 257, 258 

Jaguar, 93 
Jeaup, M. K., 218 

Knight. O. R., 82 

Laysan Island group, 60 
Leopard, 83, 92 
Lions, cover (Apr.) 8. 14, 183 
Limestone caves, 105, 244, 246 
Loon, Group of black-throated, 10 



Mammoth, 91 1 ^ 

Mangrove swamps, 102 

Manikins, 11, 13 

Mastodon, 91 

Menomini bag, 72 

Miller, L. E., 214 

Monaco, Prince Albert of, 173 

Monkey, Panamanian, 241 

Moose, 45 

Murals, Knight, 85 

Octopus group, 53 
Opossum, 247 
Orang-utans, 11 
Ornitholestes, 86 

Paca, 246 

Paddleflsh group. 53; 

Palaeolithic art. 225-237 

Panama expedition, 238-242, 244-247 

Pareiasaurus whaitsi, 138 

Pasteur. Louis. 215 

Peace River. Along. 253-260 

Peale, C. W..84 

Piltdown gravel bed, 200 

Piltdown man, 188, 189, 192-198 

Pottery, Arawak, opp. 295, 302, 303; Cherokee, 

160; Nasca, opp. 208 
Pueblo Indian girl, cover (Dec.) 

Restorations : 

Allosaurus, 86; Arsinoitherium, 89; Diplodoeus, 
98; Ichthyosaurus, 87; Mammoth, 91 ; Mas- 
todon, 91; Ornitholestes, 86; Piltdown man, 
188; Sabre-tooth tiger, 90; Tiger, 90; Tylo- 
saurus, 88 

Rondon, Colonel, 171 

Roosevelt, Kermit, 214 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 171, 214 

Sabre-tooth tiger, cover (Mar.), 90 

Setters, 93 

Sharpe, R. B., 5 

Sheep, 65 

Shell ornaments, 232 

Sink-hole, 19, 20 

Sioux invocation, 164 

Somaliland, 112, 113, 115, 116, 304, 307, 308 

Stone implements. 157-162; 225-231. 233-237, 

295. 297-301 
Storage rooms. 74. 75 
Sturgeon. Catch of shovel-nosed, 38 

Tapinocephalus atherstonei, 139 

Thunderers, 71, 72 

Tiger, cover (Feb.). 94. 97; Sabre-tooth, cover 

(Mar.), 90 
Tipl. 71 
Tylosaurus, 88 

Verreaux, Jules, 9 
Visitors' room, 79 
Volan, 18 

Water hole, 115 

Whales. 274, 276, 277, 279-284, 286-294 

Whaling station. 285 

Wharf-pUe group, 52 

Zahm. Father, 214 



iv 



/OLUME XI 



^ 



JANUARY, 1 914 



NUMBER 




'V ->' -':,<;'■ 



AMERICAN MOSEDM 
JOURNAL 




•REE TO MEMBERS 



FIFTEEN CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

President 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. P. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

The Mayor of the City of New York 
The Comptroller of the City op New York 
The President opIthe Department of Parks 
Albert S. Bickmore Madison^Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Arthur Curtiss James John B. Trevor 

Thomas DeWitt Cfyler Walter B. James Felix M. Warburg 

James Douglas A. D. Juilliard George W. Wickersham 

Seth Low 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
other parts of the world. The membership fees are, 

Annual Members $ 10 Fellows $ ."JOO 

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The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 v. u. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
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concerning their sale may bo obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public 
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be arranged for. In all ca.scs tlie best results are obtained with .small groups of children. 

Workrooms and Storage Collections may be; visited by per.sons i)r(!S(niting member- 
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room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple 
ruins at Mitla, Mexico. 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV JANUARY, 1914 Number 1 



CONTENTS 

Cover, Photograph showing Group of Virginia Deer 
The work of Carl E. Akeley in the Field Museum, Chicago 

Frontispiece, Photograph of the American Robin Group 2 

The first bird group in the American Museiun 

The Story of Museum Groups, Part I Frederic A. Lucas 3 

A history of the popular development of museums, a development which has changed these 
institutions from ' ' the dreary exhibits of forty years ago " adapted only for the use of techni- 
cally trained scientists to ' ' the present realistic pictures of animal life ' ' fitted for the pleasur- 
able instruction of all classes of people 

Illustrations from photographs of groups at present exhibited in the British Museum, Lon- 
don; Booth Museum, Brighton, England; United States National Museum, Washington; 
Field Museum, Ctiicago; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, and the American Museum, New 
York 

A Chapter of Ancient American History Herbert J. Spinden 17 

A brief review of the wonders of the ruined city Chichen Itza of Yucatan, ' 'founded when the 
Huns under Attila were battling with the failing armies of Rome," and ten centuries later 
sinking "into oblivion, while the English and French fought out the Hundred Years' War" 
Illustrations from photographs taken at the site of the ruins by the Author 

Fish Exhibits in the American Museum Bashj-ord Dean 33 

Some Fish of the Middle West Dwight Franklin 37 

The Blind in the American Museum Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 39 

Museum Notes 43 



Mary Ctnthia Dickebson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar per year, fifteen cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the 
Post-OfBce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal, 77th St. and 
<:Jentral Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




AMERICAN ROBIN GROUP 
THE FIRST BIRD GROUP IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



The American robin group was mounted by Jenness Richardson in 1887. The wax leaves and 
flowers were made by Mrs. Mogridgo, who introduced the work into tlie United States. This was; 
the first of the very large series of bird groups now rcpresontod in the American Museum 



The American Museum Journal 



Volume XiV 



JANUARY, 1914 



Number 1 



THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 

Part I 
By Frederic A. Lucas 



* * * *; quseque ipse [felicissima] vidi 
Et quorum pars [minor] fui 

THE many groups of animals in the 
American Museum of Natural 
History represent many phases 
of what may be termed "the group 
question" and illustrate the various 
steps that have led from the dreary ex- 
hibits of forty years ago to the present 
realistic pictures of animal life. Twenty- 
five years ago, even, there was scarcely 
a group of animals, or a descriptive 
label, in any museum in the United 
States. It is to be noted that the 
qualifying adjective scarcely is used, for 
even twenty-five years ago there were a 
number of animal groups in our mu- 
seums, though it was still a moot ques- 
tion whether their display was a legiti- 
mate feature of museum work, and the 
educational possibilities of such exhibits 
were realized by few. 

Museum authorities are somewhat 
conservative and as museums at first 
were mainly for the preservation of 
material for students, their educational 
value to the public was not considered. 
The principal object in mounting ani- 
mals, especially mammals, was to pre- 
serve them and put them in a condition 
to be studied and compared one with 
another. Groups were not even thought 
of and, as Dr. Coues wrote as late as 
1874: "'Spread eagle' styles of mount- 
ing, artificial rocks and flowers, etc., are 
entirely out of place in a collection of 



any scientific pretensions, or designed 
for popular instruction. Besides, they 
take up too much room. Artistic group- 
ing of an extensive collection is usually 
out of the question; and when this is 
unattainable, halfway efforts in that 
direction should be abandoned in favor 
of severe simplicity. Birds look best 
on the whole in uniform rows, assorted 
according to size, as far as a natural 
classification allows." The only use of 
groups was for a few private individuals 
and they were mainly heterogeneous 
assemblages of bright-plumaged birds 
brought together from the four quarters 
of the globe and shown simply because 
they were pretty. 

So far as we are aware, the introduc- 
tion of groups into public museums was 
due to the influence of an enthusiastic 
private collector, Mr. E. T. Booth, of 
Brighton, England, who devoted a large 
part of his life to making a collection of 
British birds, mounted in varied atti- 
tudes, with accessories that copied more 
or less accurately the appearance of the 
spot where they were taken. As Mr. 
Booth wrote, "the chief object has been 
to endeavor to represent the birds in 
situations somewhat similar to those in 
which they were obtained; many of the 
cases, indeed, being copied from sketches 
taken on the actual spots where the birds 
themselves were shot." These groups 
were intended to be viewed from the 
front only and were arranged in cases of 

3 




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THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 



standard sizes, assembled along the side 
of a large hall. The collection, which 
was begun not far from 1858, was be- 
queathed to the town of Brighton in 
1890, and is known as the Booth Mu- 
seum, and we earnestly hope that it may 
endure for many years to come. 

Montagu Brown of Leicester adopted 
the methods of Mr. Booth and a little 
later, through the instrumentality of R. 
Bowdler Sharpe, the first small " habitat 
group" of the coot was installed in the 
British Museum. Now it is rather 
interesting to note that some naturalists 
who are best known by their scientific 
work, and are usually regarded by the 



public as being of the dry-as-dust type, 
were among the earliest advocates of 
naturalistic methods in museum exhibits. 
Thus, to Dr. Sharpe, whose enduring 
monument is the British Museum Cata- 
logue of Birds, and to Dr. Gunther, best 
known for his systematic work on fishes, 
we are indebted for the introduction 
of groups into a great public museum 
and for obtaining for them the recogni- 
tion of a scientific institution of long 
standing. 

The installation of bird groups in the 
British Museum made good progress 
under the administration of Sir William 
Flower, who took especial interest in the 




R. BOWDLER SHARPE 
Under whose auspices the first of the bird groups was installed in the British Museum 




SIR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER 
DIRECTOR OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM FROM 1884 TO 1898 

Sir William Flower probably did more than any other man to change the character 
of museum exhibits and malce them attractive as well as instructive. He not only i)lanned 
the exhibits and gave his personal attention to their installation, but in some instances he 
prepared the specimens himself. In this country like credit sliould l)e given to Dr. G. Brown 
Goode, who was an ardent admirer of Flower and his worli in the British Museum 



6 




Robin redbreast group in the British Museum 



educational side of museums and in the 
introduction of exhibits that were at- 
tractive, as well as instructive, to the 
general visitor. 

The first group in the American Mu- 
seum, an Arab courier attacked by lions, 
was purchased in 1869 and shown in 
the old Arsenal building in Central Park, 
then the home of this institution. This 



group may have been theatrical and 
"bloody" but, as a piece of taxidermy, 
it was the most ambitious attempt of 
its day. Moreover it was an attempt 
to show life and action and an effort to 
arrest the attention and arouse the 
interest of the spectator, a most impor- 
tant point in museum exhibits. If you 
cannot interest the visitor you cannot 

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JULES VERREAUX 
NATURALIST, TRAVELER, TAXIDERMIST 



10 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



instruct him; if he does not care to know 
what an animal is, or what an object is 
used for, he will not read the label, be 
it never so carefully written. The Arab 
courier group was prepared under the 
supervision of Jules Verreaux, the French 
ornithologist and African traveler, for 
the Paris Exposition of 1867, where it 
was awarded a gold medal. This group 
may have suggested the combat between 
a lion and tiger, displayed in the Crystal 
Palace, or that, as well as a similar group 



It is worth noting here that the Maison 
Verreaux suggested to Professor Henry 
A. Ward the possibility of establishing a 
similar institution in the United States; 
whence the well-known Ward's Natural 
Science Establishment at Rochester, 
New York. And we cannot help feeling 
that Ward's Establishment had much to 
do with the history of animal groups. 
Hither came and hence departed many a 
man who directly or indirectly did much 
to advance the art of taxidermv and 



-V. 




^^^^^^^^iiX. .. . ^ 






.1 ^ 



Group of the black-throated loon In the British Museum, one of the nesting groups of British birds 



formerly in the Calcutta Museum, may 
have originated independently. The 
last mentioned group illustrates the 
importance and effect of something that 
attracts attention: when the Dalai 
Lama visited the Calcutta Museum, it 
soon became apparent that he was look- 
ing for some particular object, and it 
later developed that this was the fighting 
lion and tiger whose fame had traveled 
into far distant Tibet. 



make possible the existing order of 
things. Named according to the time 
of their coming, Hornaday, Webster, 
Wood, Critchley, Turner, Denslow, and 
Akeley were all graduates of the old 
Establishment. Perhaps some of them 
do not like to be considered as taxider- 
mists, but we can hardly call my friend 
Wood, whose birds lack nothing save 
voice and movement to make them 
seem alive, an animal sculptor, and we 




Group of orang-utans in the American Museum. Collected and mounted in 1880 by W. T. Horna- 
day. This was the first large mammal group in the American Museum [Manikin of excelsior and tow] 

This cut reproduced from a wood engraving in Harper's Weekly, is a reminder of the time when 
lialf tones were unknown 



hope no one will take offense 
at being called a taxidermist. 

As there are so-called sculp- 
tors, who are mere makers of 
iigures, and will be that, and 
that only, to the end of their 
days, so there are taxidermists, 
men like Akeley, Clark and 
Blaschke, who are sculptors in 
every sense of the word. And 
in some ways their task is more 
difficult than that of the sculp- 
tor who deals only with plastic 
clay, for the taxidermist has not 
merely to prepare his model, 
but to fit over it a more or less 
unyielding hide, a hide that 
does not conceal the defects of 
the model but has defects of its 
own to be hidden. Probably no 
one who has had actual experi- 




Papier-mache manikin for an orang-utan. 



By Remi Santens 
H 




African elephant Miingo in United States National Museum. Mounted by W. T. Hornaday in 1882 




The framework of Mungo 



ence in mounting large 
mammals would question 
this, though probably few 
visitors realize the great 
progress that has been 
made in the mounting of 
animals, particularly large 
mammals. Not very 
many years ago animals 
were most literally stuffed 
— suspended head down- 
ward and rammed full of 
straw, often until they 
could hold no more. Then 
came the making of a 
manikin of tow and excel- 
sior; next the manikin of 
wire-netting and papier- 
mdche, and finally the 
modeling of the animal in 
clay, the molding of this 



12 



THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 



13 



in plaster, and the making of a light 
and durable form upon which the skin is 
deftly placed, copying the folds and 
wrinkles of life. 

If he who delves among books in 
various dead and living languages to 
decide which of the numerous many- 
syllabled names some small creature is 
rightly entitled to bear does not object 
to being called a taxonomist, he who 
works upon the skins of creatures great 
and small should not object to the right- 
ful name of taxidermist. So taxidermist 
let it be for the present, or until a better 
name is coined. 

The group of Arab and Lions was fol- 
lowed about a decade later, 1880, by the 
group of orangs collected by Hornaday, 
mounted by him shortly after his return 
from a two years' collecting trip around 
the world and presented to the Museum 
by Robert Colgate. 

This again leads us to note that the 
energy of Dr. Hornaday had much to 
do with the formal introduction of animal 
groups into the American Museum of 
Natural History and recognition of their 
place in museum work, because Jenness 
Richardson was a pupil of Hornaday, 
and Rowley in turn a pupil of Richard- 
son and by them, and under their super- 
vision was begun the series of groups 
now justly famous. 

These early groups did not find their 
way into museums without protest as 
may be imagined from the remarks of 
Dr. Coues quoted on a previous page 
but in 1887 the first group of mammals 
was installed in the United States Na- 
tional Museum, and this was followed a 
year later by a large group of bison. 

The other day, when listening to the 
protest of a curator against the with- 
drawal of a certain group from exhibition, 
we wondered if he remembered another 
protest, against the introduction of a 



bone that a coyote might have some 
excuse for action. Verily tempora mu- 
tantur. 

An important factor in the evolution 
of groups and their introduction into 
museums was the development of the 
art, for art it is, of making accessories, 
for without the ability to reproduce 
flowers and foliage in materials that 
would at once have the semblance of 
reality, and endurance under the vicissi- 
tudes of temperature in the intemperate 
zone in which most museums are located. 




Manikin of wire cloth and papier-mache by 
Remi and Joseph Santens. Photograph to 
illustrate strength of modem manikin 

half the charm and value of groups 
would be lacking. For progress in this 
direction we are indebted primarily to 
the Messrs. Mintorn of London and their 
sister, Mrs. Mogridge, who devised 
methods and reproduced the foliage in 
the groups of birds in the British Mu- 
seum, and who later came to New York 
to carry on the same work for the small 
bird groups.^ 

1 A description of these methods, improved 
upon by apt pupils is to be found in Plant 
Forms in Wax, Guide Leaflet No. 34, published 
by the American Museum. 



14 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 








1 — Lioness — an example of early work 

2 — African Hon mounted at the Maiaon Verreaux about 1865 

3 — African lion, Hannibal, moun^ at the American Museum of 
Natural History by James L. Clarlc in 1000. All three specimens arc 
on exhibition in the American Museum at the present time 



The earliest bird 
groups in the Ameri- 
can Museum of Nat- 
ural History, the first 
of which was very 
appropriately the 
American robin, were 
made largely after 
those in the British 
Museum and in- 
stalled each in a 
small case so as to be 
viewed on four sides. 
They thus differed 
from their prototypes 
in the Booth Museum 
which, as noted, were 
intended to be seen 
from one side only.^ 

They were all 
groups of small or 
moderate size and 
confined to species 
found within fifty 
miles of New York 
City. The time was 
not yet come, though 
it was near at hand, 
for the execution of 
the large naturalistic 
groups with which 
we are now familiar, 
and Museum officers 
and trustees would 
have hesitated to in- 
cur the time and cost 
involved in their 
preparation. 



I These early American 
Museum bird groups, 
thirty-four in number, 
havorecentlybeon brought 
together under the title of 
" Local Birds " In the west 
corridor of the second floor 




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A CHAPTER OF ANCIENT AMERICAN HISTORY 

By Herbert J. Spinden 

With photographs by the Author 



THE wreck of human handicraft 
touches the heart and none of us 
can fail to invest a ruined city 
with the purple haze of romance. At 
least it is safe to say that not a traveler 
in Yucatan and Central America but 
has been deeply stirred by the vestiges 
of ancient empire that lie scattered 
through the jungle. The ruins of Chichen 
Itza, long famous 
on account of their 
size, accessibility and 
healthful situation, 
have been explained 
by fanciful tales or 
wrapped in impene- 
trable mystery ac- 
cording to the mood 
or stock of informa- 
tion of the person 
describing them. It 
does not detract from 
the wonder of this city 
or the grandeur of its 
buildings to say that 
the light of recorded 
history, somewhat 
faintly to be sure, 
shines upon its foun- 
dation, its periods of 
brilliancy and deca- 
dence and its final 
abandonment. But 
first let us view the 
monuments that time 
has spared. 

To visit Chichen Itza, which is situ- 
ated in northern Yucatan not far from 
Valladolid, we leave the narrow gauge 
railroad at the station of Dzitas and 
then jolt for a never-to-be-forgotten 
fifteen miles over the solid limestone 
plain in a vehicle called a xolan. This 




Atlantean figure carved from a single 
bloclc. At Cliichen Itza occur table altars, 
consisting «f a flat stone carried upon the 
heads and hands of figures of this sort 



word xolan means in Spanish "they 
fly" but judging by unhappy experience, 
"they leave the earth frequently and 
return with emphasis" would be a 
better etymology to follow. The volan 
is a high, two-wheeled cart which travels 
at top speed behind several mules. It 
has no seat for the passenger but instead 
a sort of box, hung from a stiff frame, in 
which he reclines. As 
this primitive trans- 
port lurches along the 
road, glimpses over the 
edge of the box may 
be caught of the tan- 
gled jungle on either 
hand with here and 
there a trail making 
off to some milpa 
or cornfield. Finally, 
when misused flesh 
and bone can hardly 
stand another bounce, 
we arrive at the vil- 
lage of Piste with its 
little cluster of palm- 
thatched huts. A few 
moments later, on 
rounding a curve, we 
flash into sight of a 
stone temple crowning 
a lofty pyramid — and 
about us lie the ruins 
of Chichen Itza, a cap- 
ital city of the ancient 
Maya empire. 
Northern Yucatan is a limestone 
plain without streams on the surface, but 
here and there the roof of a subterranean 
river has fallen in making huge natural 
wells called "cenotes". At Chichen Itza 
there are two cenotes: one, commonly 
called the Sacred Cenote, was anciently 

17 




Ruined Spanish church beside the road on the way from Dzitas to Chichen Itza 



used jas a place of sacrifice where human 
victims were thrown into the pool 
below; the other, called the Grand 
Cenote furnished water for the inhabi- 
tants of the city. The name Chichen 
Itzd means "the mouth of the wells of 
the Itzd." The Itza were a tribe, clan 
or political division of the Maya nation, 
who have been named the Greeks of the 
New World. 



iiiiiL-ii;ii;!i 


■IMIIll iMt»»"l(,,i| 




The to/on Is a medieval instrument of torture In 
which one travels over the Yucatan solid stone 
roads 
18 



At Chichen Itza seven or eight struc- 
tures are still in a fair state of preserva- 
tion, but the bush for miles about is. 
filled with heaps of cut stone that mark 
the sites of other buildings now in utter 
ruin. The most impressive structure is 
doubtless the Castillo or Castle — the 
temple on the pyramid seen as we entered 
the ruins. The pyramid rises steeply 
in nine terraces faced with cut stone and 
decorated with sunken panels and on 
each side is a wide stairway with balus- 
trades. The base of the pyramid meas- 
ures 195 feet and its height seventy-eight 
feet. The temple on the summit rises 
an additional twenty-four feet, so the 
structure as a whole is more than one 
hundred feet in height. This temple bas- 
on one side an ample doorway with two^ 
serpent columns, that leads into a 
vaulted portico. Directly behind this is 
the sanctuary. On the other three sides 
of the temple are doorways giving access 




Panorama of the ruins of Cliichen Itza. In the foreground at the left are the Nunnery buildings, 
the smallest, the single-roomed temple figured on page 22; in the background and a little to the right 
is the Castillo with its lofty stepped pyramid, while immediately to its left is the Ball Court Group 
of ruins including the famous Temple of the Jaguars. Two cenotes are shown, the Grand Cenote at 
the right of the center and a second in the extreme central backgroimd. 

The tops of the ruins of Chichen ItzS. rise above the tree tops of a forest which everywhere 
gives rich color to the plain. The function of the various buildings is thought to have been mainly 
religious. The names given to the ruins serve only for convenience in description; they may not be 
appropriate 




The Sacred Cenote in which human victims were thrown. This great natural well is about 
eighty feet from the rim to the surface of the water. It was made by the falling of the roof of an 
underground river 

19 



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... (;•%-■'■' 



♦fst; 



■^'■^ 



'»!^ -■ 



Great sink-hole in tiie limestone plain similar to the cenote except that the caving in has not reached 
water level. Such a sink-hole forms a fairy grotto with its cool depths hung with vines and long thread- 
like roots 



to a narrow vaulted passage that leads 
neither into portico nor the sanctuary. 
The decoration of the temple consists 
of sculptured door jambs and lintels, 
all in bad repair; a mask panel or 
highly conventionalized serpent head 
in front view, on the outer walls above 
each door; two columns, already men- 
tioned, that represent feathered serpents 
with the heads at the base and the tails 
serving as the capitol, and an open-work 
roof ornament reproducing the Greek 
meander. 

From the shaded porch of Mr. Thomp- 
son's residence we look across a lawn 
where the fountain plays and the orange 
trees hang their golden fruit, to a splen- 
did relic of ancient glory — the great 

20 



building known as the Monjas or Nun- 
nery. This rambling structure, richly 
decorated with grotesque faces and geo- 
metric designs, is of especial interest to 
the archaeologist because it shows differ- 
ent periods of growth. In the first place 
the substructure of the principal range 
of buildings has been enlarged several 
times as is made clear by excavations 
leading into the solid mass. The ground 
level wing on the east was added after 
the substructure had received its final 
enlargement. The small chamber at 
the top of the Monjas, which may be 
called the third story, was not contempo- 
raneous with the range of rooms beneath 
it, first because some of these rooms had 
to be filled in with earth to support the 



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SMALL TEMPLE CONNECTED WITH THE NUNNERY RUINS 

The Iglesla or Church Is a small one-roomed temple with a flying facade [front wall elevated one 
story above the roof) which Is clearly made of reused materials. The flying facade Is oma- 
mentod with ttiree mask panels 



22 




Mask panel, front view of modified serpent head, on frieze of Nunnery foundation. Tiie nose 
formerly projected'a foot or more from the wall. A small human face is seen above the serpent nose 




Design on door j amb show- 
ing classical idea of Atlantean 
support of weight above 




Detail of decorative band in the lower chamber of the Temple of 
the Jaguars showing the skillful use of a vine and flower motive 
with small human figures at intervals 




Serpent heads formerly set into the walls of temples as frieze decorations, now scattered about on 
the groimd among the ruins 



23 



24 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



weight above and secondly because the 
walls of this upper chamber are plainly 
made of reused material. There is good 
evidence that the sculptured details of 
certain other parts of the Monjas were 
taken from the wreckage of earlier build- 
ings. In close connection with the 
Monjas are two small temples without 
substructures, the more interesting one 
being the single-roomed building called 
the Iglesia or Church. This little temple 




End view of the North Temple of the Ball Court. The 
entire side Kurfacc of the North Temple, including the slopinR 
walte of the vault and the round' columns in front, is sculptiu-ed 
In low relief 



is decorated with mask panels, and has 
the front wall elevated one story above 
the roof, an architectural device known 
as the flying fa9ade. This flying facade 
bears three mask panels which differ 
from each other and which are obviously 
made up of reused material. 

West of the Monjas is the Akat'cib, the 
House of the Dark Writing, so called 
on account of some hieroglyphic inscrip- 
tions. North of the Monjas is the Cara- 
col or Snail, a curious circular 
tower with a winding stairway. 
Still farther to the north is the 
Casa Colorada or Red House, 
an admirably preserved building 
with a long outer chamber and 
three inner ones. The flying fa- 
cade of this building is very 
pleasing with its mask panels 
flanked by frets. Over the cen- 
ter of the roof rises another wall 
pierced by windows. This archi- 
tectural detail, commonly called 
the roof comb or roof crest, is 
found in this single instance at 
Chichen Itza although often seen 
in other Maya cities. 

Continuing in the same north- 
erly direction we encounter a 
temple upon a pyramid very 
similar to the Castillo, but small- 
er, which has been named the 
Temple of the High Priest's 
Grave. This rather fanciful title 
comes from a deep shaft on the 
floor leading down to a small 
burial chamber. In conjunction 
with this temple are some small 
platforms which are believed to 
have been used as stages for 
dramas or religious ceremonies. 
Several of these platforms, 
having stairways on the four 
sides and sometimes sculptured 
panels, are found at Chichea 
Itz^. 



CHAPTER OF ANCIENT AMERICAN HISTORY 



25 



Northwest of the Castillo lies the Ball 
Court Group with the famous Temple 
of the Jaguars which has already been 
described for readers of the Journal by 
Mr. Thompson.^ The South Temple of 
this group is a plain building of little 
interest but the 
North Temple is 
very interesting be- 
cause its entire inner 
surface, including the 
sloping surfaces of 
the vault and the 
round columns in 
front is a mass of 
sculptured detail in 
low relief. The carv- 
ings deal with pro- 
cessions of priests 
and warriors similar 
to those on the wall 
of the Lower Cham- 
ber of the Temple of 
the Jaguars. The 
Temple of the Jag- 
uars is situated at 
the southern end of 
the parallel stone 
walls of the court. 
The inner chamber 
of this temple has 
excellent frescoes in 
low relief while the 
lower chamber at the 
base of the wall has 
painted sculptures. 
The last group of 
buildings which we 
have time to con- 
sider is the group of 
the Columns in the western part of the 
city. In this extensive ruin there are great 
rows of columns on platforms as well as 
several interesting temples. It has been 
suggested that this part of the city was a 

» " The Temple of the Jaguars " by Edward H. 
Thompson. American Museum Journal, Octo- 
ber, 1913, Vol. XIII, pp. 267-282. 



market but nothing that really confirms 
such a belief has come to light. The 
temples are mostly of the same general 
type as the Castillo, with sculptured 
door jambs and serpent columns. Sev- 
eral of these temples have been only 




View of the North Temple of the Ball Com-t, showing the two cylindrical 
columns. The figures on the sculptured walls have never been drawn or 
carefully studied. In general the carvings show processions of warriors 
and priests similar to those of the lower chamber of the Temple of the Jaguars 

partly excavated. One of the most in- 
teresting is the Temple of the Tables 
which takes its name from a table-like 
altar supported on the uplifted arms 
of small Atlantean figures. So much 
for the buildings of Chichen Itza: let 
us now examine the question of history. 




The lower chamber of the Temple of the Jaguars is a mass of interesting sculptures which were 
primarily painted and which show processions of warriors who bear tributes to various gods. Two 
rectangular columns formerly supported the facade which has now fallen 



When Grijalva and Cortes sailed their 
caravels to the low-lying, palm-fringed 
coast of Yucatan in 1517 and 1518, they 
found the Maya Indians in a state of 
advancement that excited wonder and 




Detail of the sculptured lower chamber of the Temple of the Jaguars 
(See stones slightly above center In preceding photograph]. The stones 
aeem to have been carved after they were put in place in the wall. 
Traces of color are still discernible 
26 



admiration. Yet we know from many 
documents that not a single one of the 
great stone-built cities was really occu- 
pied at this time. Great trees were 
growing from the roofs of the buildings 
at Uxmal and while 
Chichen Itza was a 
place of pilgrimage 
and sacrifice, it is 
pretty clear that the 
temples we have just 
seen were all aban- 
doned and in partial 
ru in . To restore the 
history of Chichen 
Itza we must review 
our knowledge of the 
other great Maya 
cities situated not 
only in northern 
Yucatan but also far 
to the south and west 
in Guatemala and 
Honduras. 
The restoration of 



CHAPTER OF ANCIENT AMERICAN HISTORY 



27 



Maya history depends upon three Hnes of 
study which must be carefully brought 
into relation, each with the others — 
namely, traditions, inscriptions and nat- 
ural developments in art. The first of 
these is, at first sight, most intelligible. 
Brief chronicles, called Books of Chilan 
Balam, were preserved at several towns 
in northern Yucatan. These chronicles 
were written in Spanish letters but in 
Maya words by educated Maya Indians 
■during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries and were doubtless based upon 
■earlier native documents which con- 
tained hieroglyphs and pictures. The 
events of history recorded in these 
chronicles are fixed with reference to the 
katuns or twenty-year periods of Maya 
chronology. These katuns are dis- 
tinguished from each other by the num- 
bers one to thirteen which fall in a pecu- 




liar order. Any date in the chronicles 
is definite for a cycle of thirteen times 
twenty or 260 years. But by putting 
down all the katuns which passed, 
whether or not there were historical 
entries opposite them, the Maya his- 
torian prevented confusion in the 260- 
year cycles and actually carried the 
historical count over a stretch of seventy 
katuns, or fourteen hundred years, be- 
fore the coming of the Spaniards. 




Typical vaulted room illustrating the arclii- 
tectiiral skill of the Maya builders. The vault 
is a solid concrete mass covered by a veneer of 
nicely cut facing stones 



The plumed serpent in the sculptured lower 
chamber of the Temple of the Jaguars. This may 
be identified with Kukulcan, the Maya equivalent 
of Quetzalcoatl [Drawn from carving in illustra- 
tion at bottom of preceding page] 

Now let us glance at the second line 
of research — the inscriptions. These 
are found on monolithic monuments, 
lintels, tablets and other objects. The 
inscriptions of the greatest value to the 
student of ancient American history 
are those expressing dates in the so-called 
archaic Maya calendar. This archaic 
calendar is essentially the same as the 
one used in the Books of Chilan Balam 



28 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



so far as the length of the katun is con- 
cerned, but by another system of naming 
the katuns the danger of confusing the 
260-year cycles is overcome. Dates 
in the archaic calendar are exact over 
vast stretches of time. The most valu- 
able data are found in what is called 
Initial Series and of these over fifty 
have been deciphered. The Initial Se- 
ries is really a number which records the 
days which intervene between a begin- 
ning day, in all cases the same, and the 
day given in the inscription. We count 
the years from the birth of Christ, the 
Maya count the days from a beginning 



day that according to our system falls 
about 3600 b. c. Nearly all the Initial 
Series dates known occur at the southern 
cities of the Maya area but one very 
important date of this sort occurs at 
Chichen Itza. Indeed it is this date 
which has made possible a correlation 
of the archaic Maya calendar with the 
calendar used in the Books of Chilan 
Balam. 

But dates that are simply dates mean 
very little; to be of value they must be 
associated with events. Now while we 
can read the dates in Maya inscriptions, 
we can do very little with the remaining 




Photo by F. M. Chapman. 
Temple of the Tables ahowing sculptured door Jambs and stone figure used as altar support 



CHAPTER OF ANCIENT AMERICAN HISTORY 



29 



hieroglyphs that probably tell the signi- 
ficance of these dates. A third line of 
research enables us however, to prove 
what dates are in all probability contem- 
poraneous with the monument on which 
they are found and what dates refer to 
the past or future. Progressive changes 
in style of sculpture and progressive adap- 
tation of superior mechanical devices 
in architecture enable us to arrange 
many works of art in their proper time 
sequence but do not, of course, enable us 
to express this time sequence in terms 
of years. Space does not permit a full 
explanation of this complicated subject 
which, however, the writer has elsewhere 
given in detail. Suffice it to say that by 
carefully coordinating the three lines 
of study just explained an outline of 
the course of Maya history is made pos- 
sible. The following names and limits 
have been suggested for the various 
periods : 
Protohistoric Period 235 B.C. to 



Archaic Period 
Great Period 
Transition Period 
League Period 
Nahua Period 
Modern Period 



160 A.D. 

455 A.D. 

600 A.D. 

960 A.D. 



160 A.D. to 

455 A.D, to 

600 A.D. to 

960 A.D. to 1195 A.D. 

1195 A.D. to 1442 A.D. 

1442 A.D. to ? 
Now let us see what place Chichen 
Itza occupies in this historical vista. 
Several of the chroni- 
cles relate that Chi- 
chen Itza was dis- 
covered during a 
residence of the Itza 
at Bacalar on the 
east coast of Yuca- 
tan. By the term 
"discovered" is 
probably meant that 
the cenotes which 
made habitation pos- 
sible were discov- 
ered. The settle- 
ment was made 



about 450 a.d. at a time when the south- 
ern cities, such as Copan and Tikal, were 
entering upon their most brilliant epoch. 
It seems certain, however, that Chichen 
Itza was only a mediocre provincial 
town at this time. Only one dated 
stone has been found and this is poorly 
carved. The date upon it corresponds 
to 603 A.D. Shortly after this date 
Chichen Itza was abandoned and the 
Itza went to the land of Chanputun, 
near Campeche, where they stayed 
according to the chronicles, for two hun- 
dred and sixty years. Somewhere near 
the middle of the tenth century they 
made their way back to the north and 
reestablished Chichen Itzd,. At about 
the same time Uxmal and Mayapan were 
likewise founded and a league between 
the three was instituted. This League of 
Mayapan, as it is commonly called, en- 
dured for over two hundred years and 
controlled the destinies of northern 
Yucatan. Trouble between the allies 
broke out with the Plot of Hunac Ceel, 
the chief of Mayapan, and as a result 
the hereditary ruler of Chichen Itza, 
whose name was Chac Xib Chac, was 
driven out in 1176. A disastrous war 
lasting thirty-four years took place and 
the ruler of Mayapan seems to have en- 
listed seven warriors from the highlands of 




Serpent heads, death heads and other sculptured figures lie scattered 
about in the brush, awaiting the careful study of the archseologist and 
student of primitive art 




' , : \ aij,'Lilar column — lower chamber of the Temple 

of the Jaguars. The design shows a grotesque face surrounded by 
three human figures. The man at the top bears a head-dress of 
leaves and flowers and holds flowering branches in his hand 




Sculptured column, Temple of I In i , . , , ,,,; 

use of square and round c<jlumns at Cliichen 11/.6., 
tnuurormlng the outer room of the temple Into an 
open portico, is a groat advance over the simple 
doorways of the earlier Maya buildings 

30 



Mexico under his stand- 
ard. These men have 
Nahua names. In all 
probability the con- 
quered city was given 
over to them as the- 
spoils of war at the- 
end of the long contest. 
After this however^ 
there seems to have 
been little in the way 
of peace. Civil wars 
rent the land and while 
we cannot put an exact 
date on the final fall and 
abandonment of Chi- 
chen Itza and Uxmal it 
is probable that these 
events occurred somewhere in the four- 
teenth century. Mayapan, the last city 
to survive, fell in 1442, almost exactly a 
hundred years before the Spaniards made 
their first permanent settlement at 
Merida. 

When we try to arrange the buildings 
of Chichen Itzd in their proper order of 
erection, it is remarkable that so many 
of the finest structures clearly belong 
to this last short period when the city 
was in the hands of foreign rulers from 
the distant Mexican highlands. It is 
unlikely that a single structure of the 
first occupation of Chichen Itza will be 
found in a good state of preservation. 
The stone with the early date that has 
already received comment is a lintel 
that was probably taken from an old 
building and is reused in a later one. 
There are, however, a number of struc- 
tures that probably date from the second 
occupation when Chichen Itz£ was a 
I)urely Maya center. The Akat'cib 
and the Casa Colorada are Maya struc- 
tures without a trace of foreign influence. 
Most of the Monjas Group is also Maya 
without modification. The Castillo, the 
Temple of the High Priest's Grave, the 



entire Group of the Ball 
Court and the Group 
of the Columns date in 
all probability from the 
foreign regime and con- 
sequently cannot have 
been erected before the 
last quarter of the 
twelfth century. The 
architecture of these 
buildings as well as the 
sculptures show strong 
resemblances to work in 
Tula, Teotihuacan and 
other sites in the valley 
of Mexico. The native 
religion seems to have 
suffered from the foreign infusion also. 
New forms appear in the religious art 
and it is not unlikely that the human 
sacrifice at the Sacred Cenote was in- 
augurated by the intruders. The game 
played in the Ball Court seems not to 
have been known by the Maya in earlier 
times, and indeed the only examples ot 
ball courts in Yucatan are seen at Chi- 
chen Itza and Uxmal. 

This, in brief, is the story of Chichen 
Itza.^ Founded when the Huns under 
Attila were battling with the failing 
armies of Rome, it was abandoned for 
the first time when Mohammed was 
laying the leaven of Arab conquest. 
Reestablished in the era of the Saxon 
kings, it flourished during the Crusades 
and lost its freedom to a foreign power 
when our fathers were struggling for the 
Magna Charta, and sank into oblivion 
while the English and French fought 
out the Hundred Years' War. Surely 
a city with such a history can hardly be 
dismissed as void of interest and inspira- 
tion. 

' For a more detailed account of this and other 
points In Maya history see a Study of Maya Art 
by Herbert J. Spinden in Memoirs of the Pea- 
body Museum of American Archaeology and 
Ethnology. Harvard University, vol. VI, Cam- 
bridge, Mass., 1913 




A Lumaii-liku head in the distended luouth of a plumed monster. 
The claws of the monster are seen at the bottom and between them 
hangs the great forked tongue. 




Sculptured coliunn made of drum-shaped sec- 
tions — South Temple of the Ball Court. The 
designs represent warriors, reclining figures and a 
wealth of highly conventionalized serpent heads 

31 




DETAIL OF THE BOWFIN GROUP 
This photqgraph of a portion of the group shows the male bowfln poised over the nest guarding the 
eggs against intruders. [The eggs appear as white dots in the picture] 



32 



FISH EXHIBITS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

By Bashford Dean 



IT is an open question to what degree 
the Kfe-habits of fishes should be 
pictured in an elaborate way in the 
Museum's present gallery of fishes, 
for space is limited and such "habitat 
groups" occupy many cubic feet. It is 
clear, too, that they are subsidiary to 
other types of exhibits, thus, the princi- 
pal kinds of fishes must be shown as 
casts, alcoholic specimens or stuffed, and 
there must be models and preparations 
to illustrate how fishes move, breathe, 
and have their being generally, how they 
reproduce their kind, how they may be 
curiously adapted to living in shallows, 
surf, the depths of the sea, on land, and 
even flying in the air, how they change 
colors when they sleep, or when chame- 
leon-like, they adjust themselves to their 
surroundings. All exhibits of the latter 
types may be developed attractively on 
a fairly small scale, and will interest and 
teach the average visitor to the Museum, 
and will satisfy as well a need of the 
serious reader of zoology. 

Great habitat groups, on the other 
hand, are elaborate exhibits with painted 
backgrounds, artificial plants and rocks 
and "effects" which entail much time 
to construct, great expense, and infinite 
pains to supervise and execute. The 
results, it is true, are apt to give an 
impressive and accurate picture of cer- 
tain phases in the life of fishes, and are 
certainly a definite and aesthetic means 
of attracting the visitor to a more care- 
ful study of neighboring exhibits, whet- 
ting his appetite for a more serious 
zoological diet, so to speak. Still, even 
at the best, the habitat groups of fishes 
are not to be compared with those of 
mammals, birds or reptiles, for fishes 
are least suited structurally to the art 



of the taxidermist or of the modeler. 
Scales and fins shrink, colors fade, and 
the mounted fish, no matter what its 
pose, appears only too often as a dead 
fish, opaque and leaden. It follows 
therefore, that with our technical meth- 
ods, extensive fish groups can hardly be 
expected to rival the tanks of an aqua- 
rium. 

In our present gallery accordingly, 
it has been the aim to show larger habitat 
groups only in those instances where the 
fishes form important links in the chain 
of the backboned animals, and touch the 
broader phases of natural history, espe- 
cially from the viewpoints of structure 
and descent. In such cases too, the 
effort has been to demonstrate essential 
habits or interesting facts concerning 
their breeding or development. Thus, 
the lowly lampreys are represented in a 
group which shows such details as 
swimming, excavating their nest and 
depositing their eggs. And the ganoids 
are now pictured in four larger groups. 
For the ganoids are the few survivors of 
one of the great divisions of fishes in 
early geological times, and formed the 
evolutional bridge which connected the 
primitive sharks on the one hand with 
lungfishes, and on the other with the 
bony fishes, which form perhaps over 
ninety-nine per cent of all living fishes. 
In these four habitat groups, the first 
pictures the shovel-nosed sturgeon, which 
still occurs in the Mississippi and its 
tributaries, and is to be regarded as the 
least modified of all living ganoids. 
The second shows the spoonbill sturgeon, 
which, on the contrary, is the most 
highly modified member of the ancient 
stock. This eccentric sturgeon has sur- 
vived only in this country and in China, 

33 



34 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



and is here verging perceptibly toward 




Portion of the transparent background of the 
bowfln group to show th«? painting of the male bow- 
fln with the swarm of newly-hatched young 



extinction, for its immature spawn is 
used as a caviar and our fishermen have 
devised means of well-nigh exterminat- 
ing it. The third group exhibits the 
spawning habits of the gar pike, whose 
close-set armor of enamel plates suggests 
at once the bony- and glossy-scaled 
fossil fishes which one finds abundant 
from the age of the Old Red Sandstone 
onward." The fourth group shows a gan- 
oid which has nearly attained the ap- 
pearance and structure of a modern 
bony fish. This is the dogfish or bowfin, 
Amia, which though known fossil from 
many parts of the world, is practically 
restricted to-day to the waters of the 
Middle West. 

The last three groups mentioned have 
lately been placed on exhibition. They 
are the work of Mr. Dwight Franklin, of 
the Museum's department of prepara- 
tion, who collected the material and 
carried out its preparation with the 
greatest care. The plant-life accessories 
in the Amia group were executed by 
Mr. A. E. Butler, also of the Museum's 
staff, who had the advantage of visiting 
Mr. Franklin in the field. Mr. Franklin 
has prepared for the Journal a note on 
his collecting experiences, and this is 
published in the present number. 

It may be said that the department of 
ichthyology of the American Museum 
hopes to prepare at some time in the 
near future a similar habitat group to 
show the important division of fishes rep- 
resented by the living sharks and rays, 
still another group to picture the life of 
the lungfishes, and several groups to 
represent the bony fishes — one showing 
the life habits of pelagic forms, another, 
which is now well in hand, will picture 
the "phosphorescent" fishes of the deep 
sea, and still another the fishes of rocks 
and surf and bright colored corals. 




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SOME FISH OF THE MIDDLE WEST 

By Dwight Franklin 



THREE months in the field in Wis- 
consin were necessary for col- 
lecting material for the new 
fish groups — the bowfin, gar pike and 
shovel-nosed sturgeon. Oconomowoc, 
Wisconsin, was chosen as the best place 
to observe both bowfin and gar pike. 
Professor Dean of the American Mu- 
seum had suggested the locality, and it 
was he who brought me in touch with 
Dr. George Meyer, through whose kind- 
ness I was enabled to study both fishes 
at close range. With an old boathouse 
for a laboratory, I mounted and colored 
the fishes on the spot, working from live 
specimens. I also made many studies 
and sketches, including a number of 
color photographs taken on autochrome 
plates. 

The male bowfin is about twenty 
inches in length, the female being a 
trifle larger. In their spawning it is an 
interesting fact that the male assumes 
nearly all the responsibilities which we 
generally associate with the female. 
During the fall and winter months he is 
dull in color like the female, but with 
the arrival of spring he appears in 
gorgeous colors : bronze back with black 
markings, vivid green fins and underside, 
and with a jet black spot ringed with 
orange near his tail-fin. He first builds 
a nest by clearing a space among the 
reeds in the shallows near the shores of 
the lake. The reeds are bitten off close 
to the mud, and the bottom is cleared 
vmtil the depression is about six inches 
deep and two feet across. Sometimes 
the nest is built in the shelter of a half- 
sunken log, and not infrequently within 
a few feet of another nest. When it is 
completed the female enters and, with 
the male, swims around inside, laying 



the thousands of eggs, no larger than 
bird shot, which attach themselves to 
the rootlets lining the bottom and sides 
of the hollow. Then she forsakes the 
nest, leaving it in charge of the male, 
who stands guard over the eggs, keeping 
off hungry intruders. After nine days 
the eggs have hatched into tiny black 
creatures much resembling frog tadpoles. 
They lie quietly in the nest for a few 
days more and then leave in a closely 
massed swarm, the size of a football, 
accompanied by the watchful male, who 
remains with them until midsummer 
when they are fingerlings and able to 
shift for themselves. 

The gar pike's breeding habits are in 
striking contrast with those of the bow- 
fin. In early June spawning parties of 
gar, composed of a large female and 
several small males, may be seen moving 
along through the open water near the 
lake shore. They swim in close forma- 
tion, and wheel with soldierly precision. 
The eggs are dropped among the low 
weeds and the gars swim on, paying no 
further attention to them. Sometimes 
the eggs are devoured by other fishes, 
but the numbers of gars do not seem to 
diminish. In fact both bowfins and 
gars are so numerous in certain parts of 
the country that they are hated by the 
sportsman, both because they have the 
reputation of eating young game fish and 
because they are often hooked when the 
fisherman is after bass or pickerel. 
Neither seems to be used for food, as the 
gar's flesh is coarse and stringy, while 
that of the bowfin is mushy and flavor- 
less. Both however are valiant fighters 
and are not readily landed. 

When the mat«^rial for the bowfin and 
gar groups -vas prepared, I visited 



38 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Prairie du Sac on the Wisconsin River, 
having heard from Dr. Graenicher, of 
the Milwaukee Museum, that shovel- 
nosed sturgeon could be collected there. 
Mr. Ochsner, a local naturalist, was of 
great assistance in securing a few speci- 
mens, but as this sturgeon was not 
caught there in any numbers, I found it 
necessary to move on to Prairie du Chien, 
on the Mississippi River, where the 
shovel-nose is abundant. The game 
warden there, Mr. Klofanda, put me in 




T he bowfln nests among the cat-tails in the shallow water of the marshes 




Catch of shovel-nofieJ sturgeon, or "hackleback," dressed and ready 
toe market 



touch with Mr. Elwell of MacGregor, 
Iowa, a little city on the opposite side 
of the river. Mr. Elwell receives quanti- 
ties of shovel-nose, or "hackleback," as 
they are locally called, and through him 
I was able to obtain all specimens 
needed, as well as a good series of local 
fishes and much interesting data. 

The shovel-nose is one of our smallest 
sturgeons, averaging only two feet in 
length and about two pounds in weight. 
The snout is flat and broad, and the tail- 
fin tapers to a whip, 
the purpose of which 
is not clearly under- 
stood. Bottom-loving 
fish, they glide through 
the muddy water, suck- 
ing up fly larvae and 
other small organisms 
which lie on the river 
bed or they collect in 
the crevices of sunken 
snags. As they swim 
upstream in schools, 
they are caught in the 
trammel nets of the fish- 
erman, who frequently 
averages two hundred 
and fifty pounds per 
day, and who fishes 
from spring until early 
winter with the excep- 
tion of the month of 
August, when few stur- 
geon are taken. The 
flesh is smoked and sold 
at five cents a pound, 
while the eggs are made 
into caviar and shipped 
east. Eighteen hundred 
pounds of caviar is the 
average yearly ship- 
ment, although as high 
as thirty-eight hun- 
dred pounds have been 
shipped in one year. 



THE BLIND IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

By Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 



THE work with the blind in the Ameri- 
can Museum began in 1909. Sev- 
eral members of the Museum staff 
had given lectures on natural 
history to clubs and gatherings of blind people 
and had been granted permission to use some 
of the Museum material for illustration. The 
experience was so interesting that it suggested 
to Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, then director of 
the Museum, the possibility of special work 
for the blind in the Museum, and the trustees 
authorized the preparation of a room to con- 
tain collections of interest to blind visitors. 

Casual blind visitors to the Museum are 
rare however, and after testing for two years 
the practicality of a special exhibit, we de- 
cided to remove it and make an arrangement 
whereby the instructors could meet blind 
visitors and show them specimens in the 
exhibition halls. In many instances the 
specimens were taken out of the cases for 
examination, and where this was not possible, 
as in many of the ethnographical exhibits, the 
visitors were taken to the storage study col- 
lections. 

The Ziegler Blind Magazine, through the 
courtesy of its editor, Mr. Walter Holmes, 
published notices of the welcome extended to 
blind visitors and of the facilities for seeing 
the collections. The information was sent 
also to the Public Library for the Blind, to 
the public schools, and to all the institutions 
for the blind in or near New York. The 
response was slight as regards numbers but 
large in enthusiasm, and the comments of the 
visitors were often amusing as well as stimu- 
lating. One of a group of young women 
"seeing" a hippopotamus called, "My! 
Annie, just come here. This is the homeliest 
beast you ever saw! Why, he's a block 
long!" Another woman remarked, "I lost 
my sight when I was sixteen and I remember 
lots of things, but I never noticed till now 
that the knee of the ostrich was way up like 
this. I think seeing people don't half use 
their eyes." One recalls this last comment 
frequently when showing objects to the blind, 
and notes the concentration and observation 
of detail which are often closer in them than 
in the sighted visitor. 

During the first year the work with the 
blind was experimental and more or less 



spasmodic. In 1910 however, its develop- 
ment and extension were made possible 
through the bequest of Phebe Anna Thorne, 
and gifts in her name by her brothers, Jona- 
than and Samuel Thorne. This generous 
endowment, known as the Jonathan Thome 
Memorial Fund, provides a fixed income 
which enables the Museum to supply trans- 
portation for the blind and their guides to and 
from the Museum; to send loan collections to 
schools in the vicinity of New York; and to 
give illustrated lectures in the Museum to 
school children and to the adult blind. 

The subjects of these lectures have in- 
cluded several on natural history and ethnol- 
ogy. One on ancient Peru consisted partly 
of readings from Prescott's Peru. The audi- 
ence was deeply interested to learn that 
Prescott was blind when he wrote this famous 
book. Among the objects illustrating this 
lecture were some fine examples of Peruvian 
pottery. These were later reproduced in clay 
by one of the blind girls. A talk on the songs 
of North American Indians was illustrated 
by unique phonograph records taken among 
the Dakota, Blackfoot and other tribes, and 
by musical instruments and other related 
objects. 

In the audience was a striking group con- 
sisting of a class of blind-deaf from an institu- 
tion for the deaf. There were five pupils, two 
of whom could hear if they sat directly in front 
of the speaker, accompanied by two teachers, 
one deaf and one normal. The latter inter- 
preted the lecture by finger language on the 
hand of one pupil and by lip movement, aided 
by the fingers of her free hand, to the other 
teacher, who passed on the words by means 
of her fingers to the other two girls. All of 
these blind-deaf had been taught to speak 
and they asked many intelligent questions 
during the course of the discussion and 
"finger-view" of the objects. ^; 

This year the plans for thorough organiza- 
tion have matured. We are now engaged in 
making a census of all the blind people in and 
near New York City, for which a mailing list 
will be prepared with the assistance of the 
New York Association for the Blind and the 
New Jersey State Commission. A letter has 
been sent to each person on this list, enclosing 
a post card to be filled out^and returned. 

39 



40 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The data relates to the occupation and hours 
of work, whether the person is able to attend 
afternoon or evening lectures; topics of 
especial interest; and ability to secure guid- 
ance. This file will enable us to communi- 
cate directly with the blind people, and to get 
an idea of the topics that will be useful to 
them. 

Two or three evening lectures will be 
given bj' notable persons, by explorers and 
scientists. Admiral Peary has consented to 
be the first speaker. The audience will pass 
from his lecture to an examination of relief 
charts, of the sledge that reached the North 
Pole, of fur clothing, Eskimo implements and 
Arctic animals, including the Peary caribou, 
the most northern of the deer family. The 
afternoon lectures, of a more informal char- 
acter, will describe the Panama Canal, life 
and work among primitive people, and how 
animals care for their young. The blind 
children in the public schools have been com- 
ing to the Museum for informal talks on natu- 
ral history and other subjects, such as stories 
told to Indian and Eskimo children; man and 
his tools — from the river pebble to machin- 
ery. 

One talk had as its theme, " the struggle 
for existence" of the mouse, although we 
called it "Meadow Mice and their Enemies." 
A mounted specimen of a meadow mouse was 
passed from hand to hand and we talked 
about the details of its appearance, its size, 
teeth and its likeness to other rodents. The 
meadow mouse destroys the farmer's crops 
and the farmer kills the mouse whenever he 
<;an. Whatever creature feeds upon the 
mouse is, in so far, the farmer's friend. We 
"saw" the creatures of the air that prey upon 
the mouse — the hawk and the owl; the 
enemies that hunt it in the grass — the cat, 
skunk, weasel, the silent snake; and learned 
how each one hunts its prey. To understand 
how the mouse manages to (sxist with such a 
host of enemies, we described its home in the 
grass, its habits, the young mice and the num- 
ber of families a mouse-pair can raise in a 
season. And thus the hour had pa.sscd before 
a single child was ready to go. 

The objects lent to the schools for the 
blind include the regular school collections 
and ethnographical specimens selected accord- 
ing to the request of the teachers. Indian or 
Eskimo clothing, implements and toys arouse 
such interest that several of the blind children 
write letters to the Museum during the school 



year to express their pleasure in the collec- 
tions. The material is selected outside of 
its interest value, with regard to form, use 
and durability under use, although the care 
exercised by the teachers is effective in keep- 
ing the objects intact. 

Suggestions for related reading often ac- 
company the loan. These collections or 
things "seen" at the Museum are made the 
subjects of compositions, which are occasion- 
ally sent us by the teachers. Quotations 
from these essays show the observation and 
memory of the children, and their facility of 
expression : 

Would you like to know what an idea the 
camel impressed upOn my mind? His head is 
small in proportion to the rest of its body, his 
legs are long and its feet are flat so that he can 
walk over the sand without sinking 

The hippopotamus is a very short fat ani- 
mal. He has a big fat head and tiny little ears 
on the top of his head. His eyes are very small 
and are on the upper part of his head so he can 
stick his head out of the water and see what is 

going on His mouth is very big. It is like 

a half-circle. The comers of his mouth turn up 
and almost meet his eyes and make you think he 
is laughing 

Another child writes of the hippopotamus, 
"He is so fat that he has a big rinkle in his 
neck." The spelling however is remarkably 
good for children, rinkle being the only mis- 
take in half a dozen compositions. 

For the blind children the visits to the 
Museum will be recognized from now on as 
part of their school work and will be made 
during school hours. There are more than 
one hundred blind children in the elementary 
schools, too many to deal with satisfactorily 
at one time. One-half of the classes will 
come to the Museum on the second Tuesday 
and the other haK on the fourth Tuesday of 
the month. The same lecture will be re- 
peated, and will be given a third time to 
classes from Jersey City and Newark. 

In addition to natural history specimens 
and ethnographical material lent to the 
sfihools, we have prepared several small 
models of large mammals. There has been a 
good deal of discussion on the use of small 
models with blind children, and in Mr. J. A. 
Charlton Deas's admirable paper on the 
"Showing of Museums and Art Galleries to 
the Blind," in a recent number of the Museums 
Journal of Great Britain, he and his associates 
deprecate the use of small models of animals. 
I took his arguments to some trained workers 



THE BLIND IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



41 



or the blind, with a wide experience, and we 
carried the discussion further than it had gone 
in England, and agreed that the small model 
should not be used alone, but that it is valu- 
able as supplementary to the examination 
of life-size mounted specimens of large mam- 
mals. 

The child forms a better conception of the 
animal as a whole, and of the proportion of its 
parts from the model which he 
can hold in his hands. His ad- 
justment to the conception of 
size may be trained, as is that 
of the sighted child when regard- 
ing maps, pictures or toys. The 
danger however of the first im- 
pression fixing an erroneous con- 
ception of size and texture is per- 
haps greater for the blind than 
for the normal child whose ad- 
justments are more rapid and 
constant. We propose therefore, 
both the life-size mount and the 
small model. The child shall 
first feel the actual speci- 
men, shall realize that it is 
large, hairy and so forth; then 
he shall take the model and 
study the appearance of the 
animal as a whole, and gain a 
more definite conception of its 
proportions. He may then study 
the mounted animal in detail. 

The blind children of the city 
are pitiably lacking in "back- 
ground." The most common 
objects are unknown to them; 
teachers find that the appear- 
ance of domestic animals, ex- 
cept perhaps the cat or dog, 
is outside of their knowledge. 
The visit to the Museum 
means more than an hour's 
instruction, more than the mere 
viewing of new objects, it means 
a change of environment, a 
stimulation of intellectual ex- 
pression, the appreciation of the 
socializing forces which go to pro- 



duce public institutions for the distribution 
of knowledge and the betterment of life. 

A blind man epitomized the labor and 
purpose of science when he laid his hand 
on the enormous meteorite "Ahnighito" 
brought from far Greenland, and exclaimed, 
"And they took all that trouble to bring 
this big thing down here so we'd know 
there are .such things." 




The work with the blind was made possible through the be- 
quest of Phebe Anna Thorne and gifts in her name by her brothers, 
Jonathan and Samuel Thorne 




A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR SIGHTLESS CHILDREN 

The American Musoum furnishes an instructor for classes of blind ciilidren who are allowed 
to " 80O " with their hands the many intorestinK animals they read and tallt about 



42 



MUSEUM NOTES 



Since the last issue of the Journal the fol- 
lowing persons have been elected to member- 
ship in the Museum: 

Life Members, Messrs. S. C. Pirie, 
Charles T. Ramsden and Charles B. 
Webster ; 

Sustaining Members, Dr. Edwin Beer and 
Mr. Harold C. Whitman; 

Annual Members, Mrs. Albert Winsten, 
Misses Helen Louise Johnson, Marguer- 
ite T. Lee, Caroline Lexow and Chris- 
tina Muendel and Messrs. Clinton G. 
Abbott, Andrew K. Ackerman, William C. 
Anderson, Alfred L. Baker, S. Hinman 
Bird, M. C. Bouvier, Oscar Falk, H. 
Lloyd Folsom, E. Howard-Martin, Louis 
M. Josephthal, Reid A. Kathan, Edward 
V. KiLLEEN, J. M. Klein, Eben B. Knowl- 
TON, John G. Livingston, Daniel Alden 
Loring, Jr., Robert Edgar McAllister, 
Irving E. Raymond, August Saril, Gus- 
tave H. Schiff, Max Schling, David 
Schwab, Robert R. Sizer, Fred Sternberg, 
Julius Sternfeld, John Francis Strauss, 
Maurice J. Strauss, H. M. Swetland, T. B. 
Wagner, Milton H. Wallenstein, Leo 
Wallerstein, William De H. Washington, 
John Caldwell Welwood and Jacob 
Wertheim. 

A conference on the Piltdown skull and 
the origin of man was held by the Section of 
Biology, New York Academy of Sciences on 
January 12. Professor Osbom reviewed the 
succession of the early human types showing 
their relations to the alternating advances 
and retreats of the great continental glacier 
in Europe. Dr. J. Leon Williams then sum- 
marized the present knowledge of the already 
famous Piltdown skull. He was inclined to 
side with Professor Keith's reconstruction of 
the skull, which implies a high brain volume. 
Dr. Robert Broom on the other hand defended 
Smith Woodward's reconstruction which as- 
signs a low brain volume to this very old type. 
The discussion brought out the fact that the 
lower jaw found with this skull is more like 
that of an orang-utan, while the skull frag- 
ments are typically human. Dr. W. K. 
Gregory gave a series of views showing the 
base of the cranium in various families of 
Primates including man. He emphasized the 
idea that whether the Piltdown man had a 
large brain or a small brain the evidence for 



man's relationship with the old world mon- 
keys and apes was long since made conclusive 
and new lines of evidence are continually 
coming to light. He showed that the de- 
tailed characters at the base of the skull in 
man agree fundamentally with those of the 
Old World Primates. 

Dr. Williams' interesting collection of casts 
of human and prehuman skulls were exhib- 
ited. This collection brings together casts 
of all the famous fossil skulls of Europe 
and illustrates the stages leading from the 
apelike Pithecanthropus through the Ne- 
anderthal stage with low brows and retreat- 
ing forehead and sloping chin up to the Cro- 
Magnon or low palaeolithic stage with highly 
developed brain case and well-formed chin. 
This collection will be on view for a short 
time in the hall of fossil mammals. 

Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Sachs have estab- 
lished a fund to be known officially as the 
Angelo Heilprin Exploring Fund. The money 
is given in memory of Angelo Heilprin and is 
to be applied each year to any exploring pur- 
pose the Museum authorities deem fitting. 

Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of the de- 
partment of anthropology, was elected vice- 
president of Section H of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science_at 
the Atlanta meeting in December. 

Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn 
will deliver the Hitchcock lectures at the 
University of California from February 16 
to 20 inclusive. The subject of the series 
will be the "Antiquity of Man." 

Mr. Charles R. Knight will hold during 
the month of February, a special exhibition 
of his work in the west assembly hall of the 
Museum. The sculptures and paintings 
exhibited will include not only examples of 
his restorations of extinct animals and de- 
signs for mural decorations for the hall of 
fossil vertebrates in the Museum, but also 
many representative illustrations of his work 
as a sculptor and painter of modem animals. 
Various bronzes and canvases belonging 
to Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, 
Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn and others 
have been especially loaned for the exhibit. 

43 



44 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The attendance at the Museum during 
1913 exceeded by 19,000 the attendance of the 
previous year. ^ ^ sa i fei 1 HLIlJi ^fkAHi 

Dr. Robert Broom, as has been announced 
in previous numbers of the Journal, has been 
spending some months at the American Mu- 
seum for the purpose of studying and com- 
paring the ancient Permian reptiles of South 
Africa and the United States. The results of 
his work published in the Museum Bulletin 
and more briefly noticed in the Journal, 
form an important addition to scientific 
knowledge of these animals. His splendid 
private collection has been purchased for the 
Museum and will when completely prepared 
and mounted afford an exhibit of these ancient 
and peculiar reptiles, no less remarkable and 
instructive than the Texas Permian collec- 
tions of which the Museum has been justly 
proud. A preliminary exhibit of a few se- 
lected specimens from the Broom collection 
has been placed on exhibition in the case 
opposite the elevator, on the fourth floor. 

Dr. Robert Broom will sail for Scotland 
on January 24. In the work that he has 
been doing in America reference may be made 
to his redescription of the pectoral fin of 
Sauripteris taylori. This was a specimen that 
belonged to the Hall collection and was origi- 
nally described in 1843. He points out that 
it throws new light on the origin of the five- 
fingered limb from the fish's fin. Also he has 
made a study of a number of the American 
Permian reptiles and has at present in press 
a paper in which he points out the affinities 
of these early American types with the South 
African, 

Mr. Walter Granger as a result of his 
expedition to New Mexico last summer 
brought to the Museum a finely preserved 
skull of Polymastodon discovered by Dr. 
W. J. Sinclair of Princeton. This is one of 
the " Multituberculates," mammals found 
chiefly in the ancient formations of the Age 
of Reptiles. Very little of these animals 
has been known except for the jaws and 
teeth and their relationship has been much 
disputed. With the additional evidence fur- 
nished by this specimen, the conclusion is 
given by Dr. Robert Broom, who has de- 
scribed it, that they are related to the 
Monotremes or egg-laying mammals of Aus- 
tralia and New Guinea, which are perhaps 



their degenerate descendants. Polymasto- 
don was originally described by Cope and the 
type specimens are in the American Museum. 
It was at first thought to be allied to the mar- 
supial group. Later Cope suggested its 
affinities with egg-laying mammals of Aus- 
tralia. Still later scientific opinion swung 
back to the old idea that it was marsupial. 
This new skull shows conclusively that it is 
not at all allied to the marsupials but that 
in confirmation of Cope's views and of those 
long held by Dr. Broom, it is probably fairly 
nearly allied to the egg-laying mammals. 

The lectures on "Heredity and Sex" de- 
livered in the spring of 1913 as the Jesup 
Lectures at the American Museum of Natural 
History by Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D., 
professor of experimental zoology at Colum- 
bia University, have recently appeared in 
book form from the Columbia University 
Press. 

The installation of the Alaskan moose at 
the entrance to the hall of North American 
mammals places this magnificent animal, the 
giant of the deer family, in an appropriate 
position, where it forms a fitting introduction 
to the fauna of North America. It also dis- 
plays the light, metal-framed case at its best, 
showing how great size may be combined with 
extreme lightness. The case, measuring 6x10 
X 10 feet, is one of the largest of its kind that 
ever has been constructed, yet its frame of 
bronze is only seven-eighths of an inch in 
width. This style of case is indeed admira- 
bly adapted for the display of large single 
specimens, there being just enough frame to 
individualize the object — as a line around 
the title of a pamphlet gives it character. 
Perhaps for wall cases however and for large 
open groups a wooden case, or at least one 
with a fairly heavy frame, is better, giving 
the objects the appearance of being better 
protected or shut off from the surrounding 
objects of the hall. 

At the meetings of the American Anthro- 
pological Association held at the Museum 
from December 29 to 31 the following papers 
were read by members of the Museum's staff: 
"The Horse and the Plains Culture," Dr. 
Clark Wissler; "Wayside Shrines in North- 
western California," Dr. P. E. Goddard, 
also "Is there Evidence, other than Linguis- 
tic, of Relationship between the Northern 




AT ENTRANCE TO HALL OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS 

The moose was mounted in 1902 by '^Mr. Ernest Smith. The new case in which it is at 
present exhibited is the largest metal case with sides of a single piece of glass ever constructed. 
The case measures about 10 by 6 feet with a height of 10 feet. ,. The bindings are made of 
extruded metal, not rolled lilce steel nor forged like iron but extruded by hydraulic pras- 
sure through a die which forms the bottom of a crucible. The sections are held together by 
clasps and the whole can be talcen apartand reassembled in very short time. The case_is 
absolutely dustproof 



45 



46 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



and Southern Athapascans? ' by Dr. Goddard; 
"Phratries, Clans, Moieties," Dr. Robert H. 
Lowie; "The Social, Political and Religious 
Organization of the Tewa," Dr. H. J. Spinden; 
"The Cultural Position of the Plains Ojib- 
way," Mr. Alanson Skinner; "The Crow 
Sun Dance," Dr. Robert H. Lowie; "Home 
Songs of the Tewa Indians," Dr. H. J. 
Spinden; "Some Aspects of the Folklore 
of the Central Algonkin," Mr. Alanson 
Skinner. 

p7 Among the noted anthropologists who at- 
tended the meetings of the American Anthro- 
pological Association at the Museum in 
December were Professor Roland B. Dixon 
of Harvard, Dr. Berthold Laufer of the Field 
Museum, Chicago, Professor Hiram Bingham 
and Professor George Grant MacCurdy of 
Yale University, and Dr. John R. Swanton, 
Dr. T. Michelson, Dr. William H. Holmes, 
Dr. Walter Hough and Dr. A. Hidlicka of 
Washington. 

Dk. E. O. Hovey and Dr. Chester A. 
Reeds represented the department of geology 
at the annual meetings of the Geological 
Society of America and the Palajontological 
Society which were held at Princeton Uni- 
versity in December. 

At the December meeting of the Section of 
Biology, New York Academy of Sciences, 
Professor Henry Fairfield Osbom led a dis- 
cussion on unit characters as they appear to 
the palaeontologist. His researches on the 
extinct Titanotheres and on the recent and 
extinct horses had revealed two kinds of char- 
acters: first, allometrons, progressive changes 
of proportion occurring through long periods, 
resulting for example in very long skulls or 
very broad skulls or in the lengthening of one 
part as compared with another; second, 
rectigradations, characters which appear in 
an almost invisible degree as new characters, 
such as the additional cusps which develop 
in the molar teeth of herbivorous animals; 
these characters generally advance steadily 
toward a culminating or extreme form. 
These he thought possibly of the same nature 
as unit characters of the experimentalist and 
inherited according to the Mondelian ratio. 
A discussion followed in which Profcissors 
Morgan, Broom, Davenport and Osborn took 
part. 



Dr. E. O. Hovey and Dr. G. Clyde 
Fisher were the delegates representing the 
Museum in Albany at the inauguration of 
Dr. John H. Finley as president of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York and State 
Commissioner of Education. 

Through Dr. Ambrosetti the American 
Museum has acquired a very considerable 
archaeological collection from Argentina, 
representing the ancient culture known as 
Calchaqui or Diaguito-Calchaqul. The col- 
lection comes from two localities. That from 
the valley of Santa Maria, Province of Cata- 
marca, contains about fifty pieces of pottery 
including six of the large and beautiful burial 
jars characteristic of that region. The bal- 
ance is from ruins on the island of Tilcara, 
Province of Jujuy, and consists of pottery 
vessels and many implements of stone and 
bone. The collection comes as an exchange 
with the Museo Ethnografico de la Facultad 
de Filosofia y Letras of Buenos Aires. 

Dr. John C. Merriam, head of the depart- 
ment of palaeontology of the University of 
California, visited the Museum during Janu- 
ary for the purpose of comparative study of 
some of .our fossil vertebrate collections. 

Dr. Merriam has forwarded to the Museum 
a valuable installment of the series of skulls 
and skeletons from the asphalt deposits of 
Rancho-la-Brea, near Los Angeles, which we 
are to receive in exchange from the University 
of California. The first installments received 
some time ago have enabled us to illustrate 
in the " asphalt group " the extraordinary 
manner in which these animals came to be 
preserved as fossils. The present installment 
is intended for the series showing the various 
kinds of animals (all extinct species) pre- 
served. It consists of complete skeletons of 
the great wolf {Canis dims) and sabre-tooth 
tiger {Smilodon californicus) and skulls of the 
lion (Felix atrox var. bebbi) and horse (Equus 
occidentalis) . The wolf is notably larger 
than the largest living timber wolves to which 
it is nearly related. The sabre-tooth tiger, 
one of the most remarkable of all extinct 
beasts of prey, is considerably smaller than 
the great Pampean species of South America, 
but equals the existing lions and tigers in size, 
although very different in appearance and 
habits. It was especially adaptcul to prey 
upon large powerful and thick-skinned beasts, 
using its great dagger-tusks to pieice tli rough 



MUSEUM NOTES 



47 



their thick hides and protecting coats of hair. 
The Hon is closely related to the lions and 
tigers of to-day, but of much larger size, 
comparing in this particular with the great 
brown bears of Alaska, the largest living 
Carnivora. It seems to have been much like 
the modern lion in appearance and habits, 
although it is not known whether it had a 
mane. The horse is also a near relative of the 
living species and about as large as an average 
domestic carriage horse. 

This gigantic extinct lion is comparatively 
rare among the asphalt fossils and the horse 
is not very common. The selection of these 
fine specimens for our collections by the Uni- 
versity of California is therefore very highly 
appreciated. The skulls and skeletons are 
among the finest of their kind that have been 
secured from the La Brea deposits. 

A WIRELESS receiving set has been secured 
and is now being used daily at the Museum 
for getting the noontime signal from the 
Naval Observatory at Washington through 
the great radio station at Arlington. 

On January 26 Mr. Fay-Cooper Cole will 
give an illustrated lecture on "The Wild 
Tribes of Mindanao" before the American 
Ethnological Society and the Section of 
Anthropology and Psychology of the New 
York Academy of Sciences. 

Although the Museum through its public 
lectures reaches a large number of people, it 
does not perhaps reach in this way the stu- 
dents who are in search of more technical 
knowledge in those fields which do not lend 
themselves readily to popular presentation 
and illustration by lantern slides. To those 
students the Museum opens its library, its 
study collections, its exhibition halls and 
renders assistance by guide leaflets, hand- 
books and scientific writings but in order to 
be of more service a course of lectures which 
are not illustrated and which are intended for 
those especially interested along the lines of 
■social organization of primitive people has 
been arranged. On January 8 and 15, Dr. 
Robert H. Lowie will speak on "Social 
Organization"; on January 22, Dr. Pliny E. 
Goddard will speak on "Religious Observ- 
ances" and on January 29, on "Religious 
Beliefs." 

The American Museum of Natural History 
and the American Scenic and Historic 



Preservation Society announce a lecture to be 
given January 14 at the Museum by Dr. 
Douglas Wilson Johnson on "The Scenery 
of the Atlantic Coast and its Answer to the 
Question: Is the Coast Sinking?" 

On January 27 in the east assembly hall 
of the Museum, Mr. Alanson Skinner will 
speak before the Linnsean Society of New 
York on the Cree and O jib way Indians of 
Saskatchewan. Mr. Skinner visited these 
tribes in 1913 securing valuable information 
along the lines of folklore and material 
culture. 

Several interesting fishes have recently 
been mounted in the Museum laboratories by 
Mr. Thomas Bleakney, and placed on exhibi- 
tion in the systematic collection. Among 
these is a peculiar spotted South American 
catfish with much flattened head and very 
long barbels (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum) . 
South America is the home of many different 
catfishes. Some have the appearance of the 
whiskered horned pout of North America; 
others are variously encased in coats of mail, 
while still others are especially adapted to 
clinging to the beds of swift mountain tor- 
rents. Another abundant South American 
family, the Characins, is in some respects 
intermediate between catfish and carp, but 
the typical representatives look and act more 
like large-scaled trout. Erythrinus erythrinus 
is an Amia-like Characin which has recently 
been placed on exhibition, as has also Stern- 
archorhynchus curvirostris, with elephant-like 
snout or trunk. This latter species belongs 
to an allied group of eel-like fishes. Two 
specimens of the swellfish common in salt 
water near New York, have likewise been 
prepared. One shows the fish in its normal 
condition, the other as it appears after having 
inflated itself, a strange habit doubtless use- 
ful in intimidating its enemies. 

Additions and rearrangements now under 
way will notably increase the interest of the 
exhibit of South American extinct mammals 
(fourth floor, south pavilion) . To the ground 
sloth group is added a fifth skeleton of Sceli- 
dotherium, the long-skulled ground sloth. 
It differs from the more common Mylodon in 
that the head is long and narrow, probably 
prolonged in life into a slender snout as in the 
modern anteaters, while the body is peculiarly 
short and almost globular. The new glypto- 



48 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



dont group shows three of these so-called 
tortoise-armadillos. The largest and most 
complete is the Panochthus of Argentina, of 
which the carapace, head and tail have hereto- 
fore been on exhibition in a separate case. 
The limbs and feet are now placed in position 
and add to the oddity of its make-up. The 
massive powerful hind legs support the main 
weight of the body. The fore limbs show that 
the animal walked upon the tips of the claws 
like the little modem armadillos, instead of 
resting upon the sole of the forefoot, as one 
might expect in a beast so massively pro- 
portioned. A remarkably perfect carapace 
found in Mexico two years ago by Mr. 
Bamum Brown, is now exhibited for the first 
time. The third and smallest glyptodont is 
from northern Texas, found by Mr. J. W. 
Gidley in 1901, and has been on exhibition 
separately in a case. 

This wonderful extinct fauna, so different 
from those of the rest of the world, is further 
illustrated by the magnificent sabre-tooth 
tiger skeleton, the casts of skeletons of 
Toxodon, Macrauchenia and Hippidium (the 
last to be transferred from the horse evolu- 
tion alcove) and a large series of skeletons, 
skulls, limbs, etc. of the various extinct ani- 
mals characteristic of South America already 
emplaced or in preparation for the walls and 
table cases. 

The recent acquisition by the New York 
Aquarium of a lobster weighing twenty-one 
pounds calls to our attention the fact that 
the American Museum has the largest known 
mounted specimens of lobsters in the world, 
one weighing when caught thirty-four pounds 
and the other thirty-one. Both were caught 
off Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 1897. 
Although they are abnormal as to size, they 
gcjem to be perfectly normal in every other 
way, their proportions being not at all out 
of the ordinary. The specimens are exhibited 
in the Darwin hall of the department of 
invertebrate zoology. 

Mb. John D. Crimmins has recently 
presented to the Museum a large mounted 
specimen of the rare silver-fish Hynnis 
cubensia taken at Palm Beach, I'lorida, in 
February, 1913. 

Dr. C-E. A. WiNSLOW delivered the presi- 
dent ial address before the Society of Ameri- 
can Bacteriologists in Montreal, Canada, 



January 1, 1914, on the "Characterization 
and Classification of Bacterial Types." Dr. 
Winslow together with Prof. J. G. Adami of 
Montreal and Prof. E. O. Jordan of Chicago 
have been appointed members of an Inter- 
national Commission on the Classification of 
Bacteria, which is now being organized. It 
is hoped that the American Museum collec- 
tion of living bacteria will prove of peculiar 
value in the work of this commission. 

The following lectures to take place on 
Thursday evenings at 8:15 have been ar- 
ranged for the Members' course: Februarys, 
"Among the Wild Tribes of the Philippine 
Islands," Dean C. Worcester; February 19, 
"Seals and Other Animals of the Pribilof 
Islands," Frederic A. Lucas and Roy C. 
Andrews; February 26, "Fertile Argentina 
and its Vast Patagonian Pampas," Charles W. 
Furlong; March 5, "The Ascent of Denali 
(Mount McKinley)," Archdeacon Stuck; 
March 12, "Mexico and Her People," Fred- 
erick I. M onsen. 

The children's course of lectures open to 
all school children who are accompanied by 
their teachers and to children of members on 
the presentation of a membership ticket has 
been arranged as follows: March 2, "l^he 
Coming of Columbus," Agnes L. Vauglian; 
March 4, "Geography of the United States," 
G. Clyde Fisher; March 6, "The Panama 
Canal," Agnes L. Vaughan; March 9, 
"Exploration of the West," Agnes L. 
Vaughan; March 11, "River Highways," G. 
Clyde Fisher; March 13, "Glimpses of South 
America," Charles H. Rogers; March 16, 
"Settlement of New England," Roy W. 
Miner; March 18, "The Mountains," 
Albert E. Butler; March 20, "Scenes in 
Asia," G. Clyde Fisher; March 23, "Inside 
the Indian's Wigwam," Alanson Skinner; 
March 25, "The Great Plains," G. Clyde 
Fisher; March 27, "A Summer Trip to 
Europe," Agnes L. Vaughan; March 30, 
" Early History of New York," Roy W. Miner ; 
April 1, "Our Great Northern Territory," 
Agnes L. Vaughan; April 17, "African Desert 
and Jungle," G. Clyde Fisher; April 20, 
"New York City To-day," Roy W. Miner; 
April 22, "The Forests of Our Country," 
George H. Sherwood; April 24, "Mexico and 
Central .\merica," Charles H. Rogers. The 
hour of the lectures is four o'clock. 



.UME XI 



RUARY, 1 91 4 



NUMBER : 




EE TO MEMBERS 



FIFTEEN CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TBUSTEES 

Prosident 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. P. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

The Mayor op the City of New York 
The Comptroller of the City of New York 
The President of the Department of Parks 
George F. Baker Henry C. Frick Seth Low 

Albert S. Bickmore Madison, Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Archer M. Huntington John B Trevor 

R. Fulton Cutting Arthur Curtiss James Felix M. Warburg 

Thomas DeWitt Cutler Walter B. James George W. Wickersham 

James Douglas A. D. Juilliard 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
other parts of the world. The membership fees are, 

Annual Members $ 10 Fellows $ 500 

Sustaining Members (Annual) 25 Patrons 1000 

Life Members 100 Associate Benefactors 10,000 

Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 A. M. to 5 p. m. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information 
concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public 
education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department 
for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also 
be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. 

Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens 
for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. 

The Mitla Restaurant in the (^ast basement is reached by the elevator and is open 
from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla 
room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple 
ruins at Mitla, Mexico. 



i9 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV FEBRUARY, 1914 Number 2 



CONTENTS 

Cover, " Tiger and Cobra " 

Half tone showing portion of canvas by Charles R. Knight 

Frontispiece, Fishes of a Coral Reef 

Photograph of a group in the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 

The Story of Museum Groups, Part II Frederic A. Lucas 51 

A continuation of the history of museum exhibition, with illustrations from photographs 
of some of the most famous groups of recent construction 

Hunt in a Big Game Reservation Walter Winans 67 

In Pilowin Forest, Estate of Count Josef Potocki, Volhynla, Russia. With photograph 
of the largest bull aurochs ever recorded 

Importation of Birds W. DeW. Miller 69 

Authoritative accoimt of the annual importation into the United States of 800,000 living 
birds for use in zoological parks and private aviaries and for sale by bird-dealers 

The Algonkin and the Thunderbird Alanson Skinner 71 

New Storage Rooms Pliny E. Goddard 73 

How the museimi has planned to preserve its valuable historical collections for the use 
of future generations 

Teaching in the American Museum Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 76 

Museum Notes 77 



Mart Cynthia Dickehson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar per year, fifteen cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the 
Post-Offlce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congfress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the Ambricam Mttsextm Journal, 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




-I 0} 

O «s 
O to 



uj *= 



J>'l 



The American Museum Journal 



Volume XIV 



FEBRUARY, 1914 



Number 2 



THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 

Part II 
By Frederic A. Lucas 



ONCE admitted into museums, a 
precedent established, and in- 
trenched behind the bulwarks 
of high scientific authority, groups 
slowly found their way into all muse- 
ums and their scope extended to all 
branches of natural history as fast as 
opportunity offered and the skill of the 
preparator would permit. Birds lend 
themselves more readily to groups than 
does any other class of animals; they 
combine beauty of form, pose and color 
with moderate size that permits ease of 
handling. Hence birds naturally were 
chosen for the first museum groups and 
bird groups still predominate. 

Just as naturally mammals followed 
birds and from mice to elephants have 
furnished many notable groups and 
many triumphs — and failures — for the 
taxidermist. After mammals came any- 
thing that the taxidermist or modeler 
could master — reptiles, fishes, insects and 
other invertebrates, and last of all plants, 
which copied by modern methods are 
ever green and may be made to show 
their adaptations to environment and 
interrelations to varying conditions of 
soil, climate and surroundings. 

Yea, the group idea has even been 
carried into the dim and distant past 
and in the hall of fossils one may behold 
a ghostly group of great ground sloths, 



or farther on, Allosaurus feeding upon 
Brontosaurus. And the ground sloths 
passed out of existence thousands of 
years ago and Allosaurus has not felt the 
pangs of hunger for over six million 
years ! 

Fishes offer some of the most difficult 
problems; not only does their expression 
depend almost entirely upon their atti- 
tudes, but in many cases there is little of 
interest in their habits or small beauty 
in their surroundings, when they have 
any. And added to all these things is 
the ever present difficulty of making a 
fish suspended in air look as though he 
were swimming in water. Furthermore 
in the character of their integument, 
fishes and amphibians furnish a practi- 
cally insurmountable problem in the way 
of mounting, which has led to much 
friendly discussion as to whether it is 
better to show a stuffed specimen that 
does not at all resemble the living animal 
or a cast that cannot be distinguished 
from it. 

In this instance the writer is entirely 
on the side of those who offer "some- 
thing just as good," believing firmly that 
the object of exhibits is ±o hold the mirror 
up to nature and let it reflect an image of 
nature as she looks when alive, not as 
she appears when dead and shriveled. 
And if a cloth leaf and a glass eye are 

51 



52 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



allowable, why not a wax frog and a 
celluloid fish? 

One of the first efforts in the line of 
fish groups, that by Mr. Alfred J. Klein 
in the Brooklyn Museum, showing the 
fishes of a coral reef, is one of the best, 
partly from the nature of the subject, 
which affords more scope for attractive 
surroundings than is usually presented. 
And while the credit for this group, pre- 
pared in 1907, is entirely due to Mr. 
Klein, j'et it really dates from a memo- 
randum written in 1893 after an inter- 
view with Dr. Goode, " make a group of 
red snappers with natural surroundings." 
It embodies principles, carried to great 
perfection in the habitat groups, that 



were independently worked out in the 
construction of a group of octopus, form- 
ing part of the exhibit of the United 
States National Museum at the Chicago 
Exposition of 1893. Painted background 
connected with the foreground, rounded 
corners and overhead lighting were all 
used in this small group, and while in 
comparison with what has been done 
since, it now seems a very crude little 
affair, yet it contained the germs of the 
beautiful Orizaba group. 

The curved, panoramic background 
and overhead lighting — borrowed con- 
sciously or unconsciously from our 
cycloramas — permit the last touches 
in the way of illusion and control of light 




THE WHARF-PILE GROUP 
A new marine group In the American Museum made by Mr. I. Matausch and other preparators 
under the Hup<;rvlslon of Mr. Roy W. Miner. It shows the sponges, hydroids, sea anemones and other 
Invertebrate animals with which wharf piles in favored localities are crowded below low-water mark 




Portion of the paddleflsh group in the American Museum of Natural History 



regardless of the time of day. The 
octopus group embodied also another 
idea, brought to great perfection here by 
Miss Mary C. Dickerson, that of making 
a single mold serve for making many in- 
dividuals. In the octopus group the 



animals were cast in gelatin compound 
and bent into diverse attitudes; to-day 
casts are made in wax, warmed and 
worked into many poses; a case of the 
parallel development that occurs in 
methods as well as in nature. 




OCTOPUS GROUP 
This group was prepared by Dr. F. A. Lucas for the Chicago Exposition of 1893 and is at present 



In the United States National Museum, 
a mixtiu-e of glue and gelatin 



The animals were modeled in clay and cast in " cathcartine," 



53 



54 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The first bird groups, those in the 
British Museum and those here, were, 
if we may borrow a phrase once familiar, 
now almost obsolete, pre-Raphaelistic 
in their character — exact copies of the 
spot or surroundings where the animals 
were taken. The plants were counted 
and plotted on a diagram; sod, roots and 
shrubs were dug up and transported, 
often in the face of great difficulties, to 
the museum where the group was to be 
established, and there assembled in the 



exact and proper order of occurrence. 
The next step was the habitat group 
and here is where Dr. Frank M. Chap- 
man comes into the story, for it is to 
him that we owe the series of nature 
pictures known by that name. 

The habitat group does not copy 
nature slavishly, even though an actual 
scene forms the background; it aims to 
give a broad and graphic presentation 
of the conditions under which certain 
assemblages of bird life are found, to 




VIRGINIA DEER IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

Virginia deer. American Museum of Natural History, mounted by Mr. Carl E. Akeley In 1902. This 
is an example of work that has made modern taxidermy an art. The work of the taxidermist is in a 
way more difficult than that of the sculptor, that is he must not only make a model of the animal 
In lifelike poae. but must then with great art fit over this model the unyielding skin of the animal 




HOWLING MONKEYS 
In the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, mounted by Mr. J. William Critchley. 
It is a group whose main piirpose is to show the varied attitudes of the animals. Such groups preceded 
the large naturalistic groups which combine artistic effect with instruction and so greatly enhance 
the educational value of museums 



bring home to the observer the atmos- 
phere and vegetation of some typical 
part of the country. But save in ex- 
ceptional cases, the foreground does not 
exactly reproduce any given bit of coun- 
try, although it does copy the plants and 



shrubs found there. How these groups 
were prepared, what journeyings by flood 
and field they involved is told by Dr. 
Chapman himself in Camps and Cruises of 
an Ornithologist and very briefly in the 
leaflet describing these groups. The 

55 



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The Laysan Island group made for the State University of Iowa by Mr. Homer R. Dill. This 
group shows a portion of the albatross rookery on the little island of Laysan where millions of birds 
find a home in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 



habitat groups thus involved a slight de- 
parture from nature, in that while the 
background depicted an actual scene, the 
foreground was often generalized and 
this involves the whole question of how 
far it is allowable to depart from actuali- 
ties. May we combine animals from 
diflFerent localities or show together those 
taken at diflFerent seasons? Shall we 
fabricate our soil and "fake" our trees? 
Personally the writer believes that all 
these things are permissible, with certain 
restrictions, nay, in some instances, must 
be done, not merely to make a group at 
all, but to enhance its educational 
value. For example, a bison in his 
winter coat may be introduced into a 
group with the mother and young and 
a baby moose placed with an antlered 

60 



bull — in no other way can you com- 
plete the life cycle and tell the whole 
story. 

Dr. Chapman found it physically 
impossible to bring away the water- 
soaked nests of the flamingos; Mr. 
Cherrie found equal difficulty with the 
sodden nests of the guacharo birds, while 
to carry oflF the cave in which they were 
found would have defied even Hercules 
in his prime. Here certainly, fabrica- 
tion is a necessity; and if so much, why 
not more? If we cannot import a tree 
from the forests of Venezuela, let us 
"adapt" an ironwood from Vermont, 
whereon a colony of howling monkeys 
may disport themselves. In this case 
it is the animals and not their surround- 
ings that are to be emphasized and the 





accessories are a matter of secondary 
importance, merely a setting. 

The first large group, the Bird Rock 
group, placed on exhibition in 1898, was 
not definitely planned as a habitat 
group, but merely as a picture of part of 
a famous and impressive bird colony and 
to make "a permanent record of this 
characteristic phase of island life." The 
Cobb's Island group was the next and 
the first real habitat group to be con- 
structed, this subject being chosen partly 
because it provided a large and interest- 
ing group at small expense. 

Year after year this series of groups 
has been extended, covering the country 
from east to west and north to south, 
until room is left for but one more and 
that, it is hoped, will include the bird 
life of the Arctic regions. 

The bullfrog and giant salamander 
groups, which are among the latest to be 



added to museum exhib- 
its, belong in still another 
category and may be 
termed synthetic, or life 
study groups, bringing 
together in one compos- 
ite picture a number of 
animals that probably 
would not be found in so 
small an area at any one 
moment of the season de- 
picted, but might all be 
found there at some 
moment of the season. 
Such a group may, or 
may not, represent a 
particular spot; it does 
depict the natural condi- 
tions under which the 
animals are to be found 
and shows them engaged 
in the most characteristic 
and interesting of their 
varied occupations. In 
this, the day of moving 
pictures we may say that as the moving 
picture condenses into five minutes' 
time the events of days or weeks, so 
these groups depict in a few square 
feet of space the life and happenings 
of a much larger area. 

The group in its latest form is to be 
found in the Museum of the University 
of Kansas, where it includes a great part 
of the Museum, a special section having 
been constructed to contain a large 
cyclorama where the various North 
American animals from plain to moun- 
tain and from temperate to Arctic Amer- 
ica may be viewed approximately as they 
would be seen in nature.^ Somewhat 
similar is the Laysan Island group, 
executed for the State University of 



1 This prepared by and under the direction of 
L. L. Dyche, is an amplification of his ideas as 
shown in 1893 in the Kansas Building at the 
World's Fair. 

61 




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STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 



65 



Iowa by Mr. Homer R. Dill, where the 
visitor gazes about him at the imposing 
assemblage of albatrosses and other sea 
fowl, while beyond the blue Pacific 
stretches to the horizon. Aside from 
these the bison and moose groups in this 
Museum, by Richardson and Rowley, 
are the largest that have been made, 
and although they have been on exhibi- 
tion for twenty-four and twenty years 
respectively, they compare favorably 
with those of to-day. 

The African mammals by Mr. Carl 
E. Akeley in the Field Museum, are 
among the finest of their kind for pose 
and character, but the "Four Seasons," 
in the same museum and also by Mr. 
Akeley, depicting the Virginia deer in 
spring, summer, autumn and winter, rep- 
resent high-water mark in this direction, 
combining as they do pictorial beauty 
with scientific accuracy of detail. It was 
while engaged on these groups that Mr. 
Akeley perfected the method of making 
the manikin, or artificial body on which 
the skin is placed, so as 
to combine strength, light- 
ness and durability, and 
also devised methods for 
the rapid reproduction of 
leaves and a compound 
stronger and more durable 
than wax. The need for 
making leaves in large 
quantities is shown by the 
fact that in the "Four 
Seasons," the summer 
group alone called for sev- 
enteen thousand leaves. 

Such, briefly, is the 
story of museum groups; 
they have grown from the 
little box containing a 
pair of birds and a square 
foot or two of their im- 



mediate surroundings, to entire colonies 
of flamingos and albatrosses and the 
broad sweep of land or sea shown in the 
Orizaba and Laysan groups. No one 
man can justly claim credit for the 
beauty and accuracy of such groups as 
may to-day be seen in our larger mu- 
seums; many have contributed to this 
perfection and some stand preeminent 
among the rest. To each and all his 
just meed of praise. Some, whose work 
might now provoke a smile, labored 
hard and earnestly in the face of many 
discouragements to lay the foundations 
on which we build to-day. Some of 
whom the present generation has never 
heard, held out a helping hand to the 
youthful would-be taxidermist and by 
aid and encouragement started many of 
our best men on their career, and some, 
keen observers of nature, endowed with 
artistic spirit and possessed of technical 
skill, have perfected what others began. 




Head of 
mountain 
sheep, in 
the Brook- 
lyn Museum. 
Moimted by 
Remi San tens, 
for many years at 
Ward's EstabUsh- 
ment.nowat Carnegie 
Museum„j_Pittsburgh 




THE LARGEST AUROCHS RECORDED 
The horns resemble those of the American buffalo witli a turn at the end like those of a gnu. 
This aurochs was so bad-tempered that he became a menace both to keepers and animals of the forest 
His measurements and weight are ofHcially recorded in Count Potocki's Estates Records as follows; 



Length of horns 21 1 inches 

Greatest width between horns 24 /^ inches 

Distance between points of horns 21 1 inches 

Diameter of horn 11 1 inches 

Distance between bases of horns ll| inches 

Length of body 107 J Inches 

66 



Length from nose to tail end 133 « inches 
Length of head 27 1 inches 
Distance between eyes 15 « inches 
Height at withers 73^ inches 
Girth behind shoulder 108| inches 
Weight 2001 lbs. 



HUNT IN A BIG GAME RESERVATION 

ON THE ESTATE OF COUNT JOSEF POTOCKI IN VOLHYNIA, RUSSIA 

By W^alter Winans 

Mr. Winans is not only a man with expert knowledge of the art of shooting but is also as 
evidenced in his book, Deer Breeding, a power in the preservation and propagation of game 
animals especially of the larger deer. He has devoted much thought and money to the subject 
on his estate at Surrenden Park, Pluckley, Kent. Among recent results of his work he has 
obtained a fertile breed from crossing the red deer, wapiti and Altai deer. This triple cross 
known in Germany as Cervus winansis has taken its place among other species in the deer 
forests of the German Emperor and in other game preserves. — The Editor. 



THROUGH the courtesy of Count 
Josef Potoeki I was allowed two 
days' shooting in his game 
preserve of Pilowin, where there is a 
greater variety of different species of big 
game than anywhere else in the world. 

Count Potoeki in 1901 conceived the 
idea of fencing in a very large tract of 
forest on one of his estates in order to 
preserve the elk {Alces alces or Alces 
palmatus as it is known in Russia) 
which is a near relative of the American 
moose. This European elk is gradually 
being exterminated and it was to insure 
the safety of the remnant that Count 
Potoeki made the reservation. 

Pilowin is fortunately a part of the 
original habitat of the elk, having just 
the swampy spots these animals love. 
The beauty of the Pilowin forest is in- 
creased by the great clumps of yellow 
azalea that grow there, plants not known 
anywhere else in the neighborhood. It 
is supposed that when the Cossacks 
camped in the forest in one of their raids 
some three hundred years ago, the seeds 
of this species of azalea common on the 
Russian steppes were scattered from 
the horses' fodder. 

After starting the reservation Count 
Potoeki began to introduce all the sorts 
of deer that would thrive in the climate, 
which is very severe in winter. Thus 
he now has wapiti (Cervus wapiti), 
Caucasian deer (Cervus caucasicus), han- 
gul (Cervus cashmiricus) , maral (Cervus 



elaphus maral), Chinese Thian Shan 
wapiti — in fact he is now turning in 
every species of large deer that he can 
get. He has not introduced any Euro- 
pean red deer (Cervus elaphus) or fallow 
deer (Dama dama) as he wants to have 
large animals only. The forest contains 
a certain number of roe deer (Capreolus 
vulgaris) and he has tried turning into it 
Siberian roe (Capreolus pygargus) but 
these latter died off, although some of 
the roe that I saw I think must have 
crossed with the Siberian deer. The 
Siberian roe is very difficult to keep. I 
have tried several in my place in Kent, 
and all have died. 

Year by year the Count has increased 
the area of the ground fenced in so that 
it now consists of some 32,000 acres. 
The past year in inclosing some extra 
ground, he was fortunate enough to 
include a herd of wild elk, which will be 
of great help in crossing the blood of 
those already inclosed. 

In 1905 Count Potoeki received three 
aurochs ^ (Bison bonasus) from His Im- 
perial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, 
from the Imperial Preserves of Nielo- 
wicz and in 1906 he imported a pair of 
American buffalo (Bison hison). All 
these species of big game including the 

'The name "aurochs" properly belongs to 
the European wild ox {Bos primigenius) which 
became extinct in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century, After Its disappearance the 
name was transferred to the European bison 
{Bison bonasus). 

67 



68 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



aurochs have increased so that now there 
are large herds of deer and a considerable 
herd of aurochs. It is impossible how- 
ever owing to the extent of the ground 
and the densenessof the forest to estimate 
the number. In addition Count Potocki 
is anxious to introduce some American 
moose to cross with the European elk 
for the improvement of their horns. 

On September 25 I went out shooting 
in the Pilowin forest, taking stand in a 
clearing behind some trees. At first 
four wapiti stags came past on a gallop 
in single file, followed by a very large 
horned stag which I shot. Then fol- 
lowed a rush of some fifty wapiti stags and 
hinds. A herd of maral deer next passed 
with a very good stag among them which 
however the Count did not wish shot. 
Finally came five cow elk at which of 
course I did not shoot and the drive ended. 

I immediately went to examine the 
stag I had shot and found it to be a cross- 
breed between the wapiti and the 
Caucasian deer (Cervus caiLcasiciLS-wa- 
piti). It weighed 796 pounds as it fell 
and had fifteen points on the horns — 
very good horns, more of the European 
red deer type than of the wapiti. 

Next day, I took my stand in the part 
of the forest where the largest aurochs 
was known to be. This bull aurochs 
was thought to be about thirty years old 
and had become bad-tempered and taken 
to killing everything he met. They 
had been obliged to treat him like a 
"rogue" elephant and turn him out of 
the herd. Before this took place how- 
ever he killed a big wapiti stag, an 
American buffalo, and attacked one of 
the keepers who was passing on horse- 
back, killing the horse and so severely 
goring the keeper that he had to be 
taken to the hospital for attendance. 

In preparation for the hunt an old 
peasant had tracked the aurochs and 



kept him under observation for several 
days and nights, lighting fires around 
him at night. As soon as the drive 
began the aurochs came cantering out 
some sixty yards away. When he saw 
me he stopped and I gave him a right 
and a left shot from my rifle. He turned 
and started galloping off, never stagger- 
ing nor dropping on his knees although 
he had received two .303 bullets, one in 
the heart and one in the lungs. After 
going a short distance however, he 
stopped in a dense thicket where I had 
to give him several more shots to bring 
him down. He is the largest aurochs 
ever accurately measured and has horns 
five inches longer and of seven inches 
wider spread than the record aurochs 
in Rowland Ward's Records of Big 
Game. 

The horns near the head are like an 
American buffalo's but have a turn at 
the end rather like a gnu's. I am told 
that only very old aurochs have this. 
A cast of the horns will be presented 
later to the American Museum. 

After the aurochs fell I heard some 
wapiti roaring and succeeded in shooting 
one which weighed 837 pounds as it fell, 
and had horns with sixteen points. On 
the way back I shot a bull elk very fine 
as far as body was concerned (weight 
943 pounds), but he had, like most 
European elk, rather a poor "head," 
that is to say the horns had none of the 
palmation of the American moose but 
were only like those of a two or three 
year old bull moose. This ended the 
second day. 

This reservation is a most interesting 
and valuable experiment in animal 
preservation and I can report that all 
the deer which I saw were in perfect con- 
dition and in fact that all of the wild 
animals in the Pilowin forest seemed to 
be thriving. 



IMPORTATION OF BIRDS 

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND CANARIES AND THREE HUNDRED 

THOUSAND OTHER BIRDS BROUGHT TO THE UNITED 

STATES IN 1913, THROUGH AN IMPORTING 

HOUSE OF LOWER NEW YORK CITY 

By W. DeW. Miller 

Special Inspector of Foreign Animals and Birds at the Port of New York, for the United 
States Department of Agriculture 



PROBABLY no importing house 
in this country is more unusual 
than that occupied by Mr. 
Louis Ruhe at 248 Grand Street, in 
lower New York City. Seen from the 
outside there is little suggestion of its 
interesting character, but the moment 
the visitor opens the door of the building 
hundreds of voices greet him, and he can 
easily imagine himself in a tropical 
jungle. 

There are birds everywhere, on the 
shelves, on the floor, overhead and in 
the windows, birds of all kinds and colors, 
each singing in his own way regardless 
of his neighbors. Quite different how- 
ever, is the effect as one mounts the 
stairs to other floors. On the second 
floor in particular, where there are 
canaries to the exclusion of all other 
kinds, the effect produced by the thou- 
sands of small voices blended together is 
indescribable. 

It is on this floor that one gets a more 
adequate idea of the extent of the bird 
importing industry, for here small 
wooden cages with two canaries in each 
cage are piled high and so close to- 
gether that only a narrow passage is 
left in which a person can move about. 
Here, almost hidden by the cages, one 
may be so fortunate as to meet Mr. 
Ruhe, the proprietor, and learn from 
him a little about his business and its 
history. The beginning was made by 
his great-grandfather, who traveled in 



Russia and Australia in search of birds 
long before there were any railroads, 
and when it was necessary for him to 
tramp about with cages upon his back. 
The business is now the largest of its 
kind in this country. 

Last year over five hundred thousand 
canaries, and about three hundred 
thousand other birds were imported. 
All come direct from Germany and not 
a week passes that a shipment does not 
arrive. The majority of the small birds 
are bred in captivity in Germany, 
France and Belgium. Most of the 
canaries are raised in the Harz Moun- 
tains, where the climatic conditions are 
unusually favorable, and chiefly between 
December and June. The proficiency of 
the canaries as singers is determined by 
an expert who stands before the rows of 
cages and in the babel of voices judges 
the ability of each bird by the move- 
ments of its bill. The bi^^ds are then 
marked as to grade, the value ranging 
from eighteen to ninety-six dollars per 
dozen. 

On the other floors of the building are 
to be found scores of varieties and some- 
times a single shipment will include as 
many as seventy kinds of birds. Among 
the birds that are imported in particu- 
larly large numbers, the canaries of 
course come first; and then the wax- 
bills or weavers (comprising many spe- 
cies of small finchlike African and Asiatic 
birds), bullfinches, Australian shell parra- 

69 



70 



IMPORTATION OF BIRDS 



keets, parrots of various species, cocka- 
toos, shama thrushes, South American 
cardinals, African siskins and bulbuls. 
Of well-marked domesticated breeds 
imported in large numbers, are the white 
form of the Java sparrow, the yellow 
variety of the shell parrakeet and the 
pied variety of one of the weavers 
known as the Japanese or Bengalese 
nun. 

Birds of every size from the tiny sun- 
bird, less than half as big as a canary, 
and so delicate that it is fed on honey 
and water with a little oatmeal, to the 
largest birds such as the emu, rhea, 
ostrich, vulture and maribou are among 
the list of importations. The larger 
and rarer birds are secured by men sent 
out in the interest of Mr. Ruhe and of 
his brother who has a similar business 
in Germany. These men visit all parts 
of the world and ship to Germany the 
birds they secure. 

Zoological parks, private aviaries and 
bird-dealers throughout the country are 
supplied with whatever species are 
needed through Mr. Ruhe's establish- 
ment. Mammals of various kinds but 
in both number and variety much fewer 
than the birds are also imported. The 
larger kinds, such as lions, tigers, ele- 
phants and bears are not kept in Mr. 
Ruhe's store, but upon reaching port are 
sent direct to his "farm" on Long Island. 
The top floor jof the Grand Street building 
is given up to monkeys, comprising 
apes, rhesus monkeys, baboons, man- 
drills and others, which are imported in 



larger numbers than other mammals. 
Of the smaller quadrupeds guinea pigs 
and white mice should be mentioned, 
and among the reptiles is an occasional 
lot of pythons or turtles. 

As a safeguard the Government main- 
tains a careful inspection of all the birds 
that come into the country, the inspec- 
tors being specialists in ornithology 
appointed by the Government. The 
only restrictions made are in the cases of 
the European starling and house spar- 
row, which however are already thor- 
oughly naturalized in this country, and 
among mammals the destructive mon- 
goose, the introduction of which into 
the United States is rigidly guarded 
against. 

An importer arranging for a ship- 
ment of birds from abroad applies to 
the authorities of the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington for a permit, 
stating the numbers and kinds of birds 
and other animals expected, with name 
of the vessel, port from which it is 
coming and approximate date of arrival. 
Because of the delicate nature of many 
of the birds and the disastrous results 
that might follow from exposure at the 
docks preceding and during inspection, 
the shipment is at once removed to the 
importing house and the inspection 
follows later. Complete records of the 
numbers and species of birds imported 
by the various dealers are made by the 
inspector and forwarded to Washington 
where they are kept on file for future 
reference. 



THE ALGONKIN AND THE THUNDERBIRD 

By Alanson Skinner 



AMONG other traditions held by 
the descendants of the Delaware 
Indians, who used to dwell on 
our island of Manhattan and in neighbor- 
ing New Jersey but who are now exiled 
to Oklahoma, is one regarding the so- 
called "Thunderbird." Long ago when 
the ancestors of 
the Delawares 
still lived on the 
shores of " the 
Great Water 

where Daylight 
Appears," some 
of their mighty 
nimrods succeed- 
ed in making cap- 
tive the great 
horned serpent 
that lives in the 
■depths of the sea, 
and while they 
held it prisoner 
they scraped 

some of the scales 
from its back. 
Now the Thun- 




Cree tipi, Saskatchewan, 
in human form 



derers are the great enemies of the horned 
serpent and are constantly on the watch 
to destroy him. Thus it happens that 
when a medicine man puts in an ex- 
posed place one of these scales taken 
from the horned serpent, the Thunderers 
hasten to the spot darting their lightning 
at it and bringing 
the rain — which 
is just what the 
Indians desire. 

The recorder of 
this tradition has 
left us in doubt 
as to the form of 
the Thunderers, 
whether like men 
or beasts, but the 
belief which he 
records concern- 
ing the Thunder- 
ers and their ha- 
tred of the horned 
snake or snakes is 
very widespread 
among the Wood- 
land Indians. In 



showing a Thunderer 




Drawing of human Thunderer from carving 
on block of wood in a Menomini war bundle 



Drawing of a Thunderbird etched on a pots- 
herd. From Siiinnecock Hills, Long Island 

71 



72 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the Middle West, the Sauk and Fox, 
Menomini,Winnebago, Ojibway, Potawa- 
tomi and Ottawa, have many tales of this 
titanic feud. These tribes all believe 
that the Thunderers are mighty "super- 
eagles" who dwell in floating tiers of 
rock in the ether above man in the west- 
ern sky. It is the flashing of their eyes 
which we call lightning and their raucous 
cries that we de- 
nominate the thun- 
der. It is the duty 
of these birds to 
guard man, to rake 
the earth with hail 
and water it with 
rain, and above all, 
to prevent the evil 
horned snakes from 
destroying mankind. 
They are war gods 
and patrons of war- 
riors and it was 
through them that 
the war bundles, sa- 
cred packs of talis- 
mans carried into 
battle as protection 

from the arrows and bullets of the foe, 
were given to mankind by the Sun and 
the Morning Star. 

In the Museum's collection in the 
Woodland hall are many examples of 
the images of these birds from all the 
central western tribes. They are mostly 
woven on carrying bags made of native 
basswood string with the designs in yarn 
or blanket ravelings. Most interesting 
of all is a painted robe which forms the 
inner wrapping of a war bundle. On it 
appear the Thunderers in both bird and 



human form as protectors and patrons 
of warriors. The human Thunderers 
are always distinguishable by their pos- 
session of huge beaks in place of noses. 
Another unique piece from nearer 
home, is a fragment of pottery found in 
1902 on a Museum expedition to Shinne- 
cock Hills, Long Island. On it is incised 
the crude figure of a Thunderbird, very 









■'ia^^?' 










The bag 



A Menomiiii woven bag showing the Thunderers, 
very old specimen made of basswood bark fibre with the designs of buffala 
wool yam 



much like those shown on the woven 
bags from farther west. It is interesting 
in that it shows the eastern distribution 
of this concept. 

Among the Plains-Cree, men who- 
dreamed of the Thunderers not infre- 
quently ornamented their buffalo skin 
tipis with paintings of the Thunder- 
birds in semihuman form. The photo- 
graph showing the Cree tent was made 
in the summer of 1913 in the Qu'Appelle 
Valley, Saskatchewan, and illustrates, 
this custom. 



NEW STORAGE ROOMS 

PREPARATIONS FOR KEEPING UNHARMED FOR A MILLENIUM SOME OF 
THE MUSEUM'S MOST VALUABLE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

By Pliny E. Goddard 



AS the years pass, one phase of the 
Museum's responsibility toward 
future generations becomes more 
emphatic. Its duty to the general 
public of the present generation is met 
in its exhibition halls in which the col- 
lections are displayed arranged by locali- 
ties and tribes. Its duty to a smaller 
public of this and succeeding generations 
is met in its research work made availa- 
ble in the several series of publications. 
Specimens tell but a small part of a 
people's activity and thought, and by 
themselves are more or less meaningless. 
This work of research however is largely 
based upon specimens. 

The primitive peoples of the earth are 
passing with ever increasing rapidity. 
Whole tribes even are becoming extinct. 
All over the world the old occupations 
and customs are being discarded in 
favor of European civilization. This 
means that in a few years we shall not 
be able to secure ethnological specimens 
from native sources. 

In 1908 twenty-four storerooms were 
built under the eaves of the west wing 
and proved fairly satisfactory, but failed 
in not being sufficiently tight to exclude 
insects or to permit thorough treatment 
with gases to destroy the insects after 
infection had taken place. Those rooms 
having outside walls proved to be too 
damp for general purposes, Also the 
space provided by these rooms furnished 
storage for only a small part of the ma- 
terial needing especial care. 

To meet this need sixteen new storage 
vaults have just been completed in the 
sixth story of the southwest pavilion. 
They t-re arranged in two rows, back to 



back, and two stories in height, galleries 
and stairways of metal furnishing easy 
access to the upper tier. This arrange- 
ment provides ample space between the 
walls and roof of the building and the 
storerooms, protecting the specimens 
from moisture. The rooms themselves 
are of concrete with tightly closing metal 
doors rendering them fairly fireproof and 
entirely proof against insects and dust. 
If infection should take place through 
open doors or from the introduction of 
fresh material, cyanide gas can be 
generated in the rooms with entire 
safety. A room after being charged 
with poisonous gas can be thoroughly 
cleared by means of a permanent venti- 
lating arrangement and electric fans. 

The material stored in these rooms 
will in part be used for future exhibition 
when other halls are provided by the 
construction of the projected additions 
to the building, A large number of 
specimens however, will probably al- 
ways be retained in storage because it is 
not necessary to display very extended 
series of related specimens and because 
very rare specimens ought not to be ex- 
posed to the risk of general exhibition. 
While in storage these specimens should 
be easily accessible to the special student, 
both to save time in looking for them 
and to prevent the deterioration result- 
ing from constant handling. The new 
and old storerooms have been appor- 
tioned to the large culture areas. 

With the exception of skin clothing of 
native tanning, containing in some cases 
the elements of chemical decay, our 
collections ought to show little deterio- 
ration in a millenium. 

73 




A PORTION OF THE NORTHWEST COAST STORAGE ROOM 

Storeroom devoted to the Indians of the Northwest Coast. A large numl)er of Thompson and 
Fraser Rivers baskets are arranged so as to be easily accessible 

Since the greater nimiber of specimens are perishable, particular care must bo taken of them if 
they are to be preserved for examination in the distant future. The chief causes of deterioration are 
the ravages of insects and chemical changes due to moisture and sunlight. The specimens must also 
be protected from thieves and from loss by flre 
74 




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TEACHING IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM^ 

By Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan 



AS an experiment in the teaching of 
history with the aid of museums, 
it was proposed to begin with a 
brief study of primitive man and the 
beginnings of human social life. A 
class of thirty-five boys of 5 B Grade, 
that is about twelve years old, visited 
the American Museum in charge of a 
teacher. The class was met by the 
Museum instructor in a small lecture 
hall, in which she had placed a collection 
of objects consisting of stone implements, 
wooden, shell and gourd utensils, baskets, 
pottery and weapons, all of which the 
children were permitted to handle. 
The boys had been reading Robinson 
Crusoe, so the instructor took the adven- 
tures of Crusoe as a text and compared 
his situation with that of early man, 
dependent on his surroundings and on 
his powers of invention. 

The theme of the lesson was the in- 
crease of man's power over matter, illus- 
trated by the evolution of his tools as his 
power to use perception and memory 
developed into reason. A river pebble 
was shown as the earliest hammer; 
next the hammers tone with pits hol- 
lowed to fit the thumb and finger, a 
shaping of the implement that aug- 
mented its utility while it diminished the 
effort required to produce effect. Axes 
and knives of flint, chert and obsidian 
were examined and the growth of the 
ideas of symmetry and adaptation were 

> In line with the work In teaching described 
here, an elaborated series of lessons has been 
prepare*! for a class of teach (ts from the New 
York Training School. On the completion of 
this course in the American Museum the class 
will continue the work at the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art. A similar experiment is being car- 
ried on in Boston to correlate education in pub- 
lic school and museum, and notes on the results 
of the experiments will be presented at the Mu- 
geums Association meeting in May. 
76 



discussed as well as the effect of the 
nature of material on the perfecting of 
the tool. Also a digging stick, the pre- 
cursor of hoe and plough, was studied, 
together with bows and arrows, slings, 
stone, shell and iron-pointed spears, used 
in war and hunting, and implements 
designed for the preparation of food, 
with questions as to their modern 
equivalents. Emphasis was laid on the 
persistence of form in some articles, 
which illustrates the happy discovery 
by the early makers of a perfect adapta- 
tion of the implement to its uses. The 
effect on the growth of human mind and 
power came in for consideration, the de- 
velopment of ingenuity and invention 
from these simple origins which have 
made possible the complex machinery 
and processes of modern times. After 
the discussion the class visited the 
anthropological halls and asked many 
more questions in relation to the ma- 
terial on exhibition. 

Another lesson, conducted in similar 
fashion, took up primitive fire-making, 
the preparation of clothing and the be- 
ginnings of art, earliest manifestations 
of love of beauty and of that need for 
self-expression which is the deepest 
craving of humanity, the end toward 
which the satisfying of hunger and other 
passions is but a means. 

Several members of the classes after- 
ward called at the Museum to ask the 
instructor further questions. No tabu- 
lated record of results could be made 
from this experiment but there was 
neither doubt of the interest aroused in 
the children, nor of their eagerness for 
more. 

The recent installation of the exhibit 
on the antiquity of man will be of value 



MUSEUM NOTES 



77 



in lessons of this kind. Such lessons 
could be expanded and carried on into 
picture-writing, folklore, religious and 
social customs, effects of climate and 
natural resources on development of 
culture and on the temperament of 
peoples, all stated in simple terms with 
material illustration. 

The child being in the objective stage 
of mental development is interested in 
primitive man, the problems that he 
faced and the means he used to solve 
these problems successfully — although 
the needs of the boy of to-day may be 
working themselves out through the 
construction of complicated motor boats, 
aeroplanes or instruments for amateur 
wireless telegraphy. All technical labor 
however gains in dignity when one knows 



its beginnings. Perhaps the products of 
human labor will increase in beauty 
when we understand that the need for 
beauty is an essential element in human- 
ity. It lies at the root of the forming of 
moral principles, of all social evolution. 
It leads toward the perfecting of the tool 
to its use, to the satisfying of the instinct 
of joy, toward health and uprightness. 

In the folk museums and historical 
collections of Europe, this method of 
teaching history could be carried readily 
into the study of a nation or of European 
culture as a whole. In America the 
museums of fine arts can provide the 
lessons when the study passes beyond the 
period of the foundations of culture, into 
those periods in which the expression of 
human activity is more complex. 



MUSEUM NOTES 



Since the last issue of the Journal the fol- 
lowing persons have been elected to member- 
ship in the Museum: 

Associate Benefactors, Hon. Joseph H. 
Choate, Mr. Anson W. Hard, Mrs. John 
B. Trevor and Mr. John B. Trevor; 

Patrons, Mrs. Harriet L. Schuyler, Mrs. 
Robert Winthrop, and Messrs. Frederick 
F. Brewster and F. Augustus Schermer- 
horn; 

Honorary Fellow, Mr. VilhjXlmur Stef- 
Ansson; 

Life Members, Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Sachs, 
Miss Beatrice Bend, Dr. P. J. Oettinger, 
and Messrs. William G. Bibb, William P. 
Clyde, Sidney M. Colgate, H. P. Davison, 
George C. Longley and Paul A. Schoell- 
kopf; 

Sustaining Member, Mr. Max William 
Stohr; 

Annual Members, Countess E. Festetics, 
Mrs. Frank W. Ballard, Mrs. Lawrence 
P. Bayne, Mrs. W. C. Bergh, Mrs. O. W. 
Bird, Mrs. Robert C. Black, Mrs. Jona- 
than Bulkley, Mrs. James A. Burden, Jr., 
Mrs. D. Jones Crain, Mrs. David P.' 
Morgan, Mrs. E. Moses, Mrs. Regina 
Armstrong Niehaus, Mrs. J. E. Watson, 
Miss Anna R. Alexandre, Miss Vera A. H. 



Cravath, Miss Lida L. Dodds, Miss Mary 

E. Harrington, Miss G. T. Sackett, Mr. 
and Mrs. Eugene E. Mapes, Hon. David 
Leventritt, Dr. LeRoy Broun, Dr. 
Harold A. Foster, Dr. Moritz Gross, 
Professor Julius Sachs, and Messrs. H. B. 
Adriance, John S. Baird, Otto F. Behrend, 
Charles S. Brown, Jr., Malcolm Camp- 
bell, George E. Claflin, Ashton C. 
Clarkson, Paul B. Conkling, E. V. Con- 
NETT, Jr., F. G. Cooper, Howard Corlies, 

F. W. M. Cutcheon, Erich Dankelmann, 
Geo. Bird Grinnell, Theodore Gross, 
Richard Howe, David Huyler, Eli as 
Kempner, George Lauder, Jr., Carl K. 
MacFadden, Edward G. Miner, Carleton 
Montgomery, I. C. Rosenthal, Milton P. 
Skinner, Norman F. Torrance, T. Edwin 
Ward, Horace Waters, T. Wolfson. 

At the annual meeting of the Board of 
Trustees the following new trustees were 
elected: Mr. George F. Baker, to fill the 
vacancy due to the death of Mr. J. Pierpont 
Morgan; Mr. R. Fulton Cutting, for the 
vacancy made by Mr. William Rockefeller's 
resignation necessitated by ill health; Mr. 
Henry C. Frick for the position opened 
through the death of Mr. George S. Bowdoin; 



78 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



and Mr. Archer M. Huntington, elected to 
membership to cancel the vacancy brought 
about by his own resignation in 1912. 

Dr. William K. Gregory has been pro- 
moted from assistant curator in the depart- 
ment of vertebrate palaeontology to associate 
in pabeontology. 

Dr. Pliny E. Goddard, associate curator 
in the department of anthropology, has been 
promoted to the position of curator of eth- 
nology. 

Dr. Louis Hussakof has been promoted 
from assistant curator of fishes in the depart- 
ment of ichthyology and herpetology to 
curator of ichthyology. 

Mr. VilhjXlmur StefXnsson, in recogni- 
tion of the important explorations that he has 
carried on and his contributions to the science 
of geography and ethnology, has recently 
been made an Honorary Fellow by the Trus- 
tees of the American Museum of Natural 
History. This is the highest honor that it is 
within the power of the Museum to bestow 
and has been awarded to but seven other 
persons during the history of the institution. 

The New York Zoological Society has 
presented two orang-utans and "Baldy," a 
chimpanzee, to the American Museum. 
Practically all of the anthropoids at the New 
York Zoological Park were killed recently by 
an epidemic of tuberculosis and have been 
distributed among the various institutions 
where they will be of the greatest value to 
science. 

The new "visitors' room" of the Museum 
is situated on the first floor at the right from 
the main entrance. It furnishes a comforta- 
ble place where people may wait for their 
friends — which perhaps is its greatest use- 
fulness; it provides facilities for writing or 
resting, also for consulting or purchasing the 
Museum's scientific and popular publications 
which are to be found there. An attendant 
is in charge during the hours that the Museum 
is open for visitors. The number of visitors 
who have made use of the room averages 
thus far about one thousand a month. 

Mr. George Shiras, 3d, of Washington 
and Mr. H. E. Anthony of the Museum's 
department of mammalogy, are studying the 
fauna of the Gatdn region of Panama. 
Because of the flooding of the region it is ex- 



pected that the animals will be concentrated in 
small areas and that rivers which before were 
unnavigable may be ascended for the purpose 
of collecting specimens. Mr. Anthony will 
endeavor to secure jaguar, puma, tapir, tiger 
cat, deer, peccary and other specimens for the 
Museum, and Mr. Shiras, who has an inter- 
national reputation as a photographer of wild 
animals, will take flash lights and other pic- 
tures with cameras especially designed for the 
work. The expenses of the expedition, with 
the exception of Mr. Anthony's salary, are 
borne by Mr. Shiras. 

The Roosevelt South American Expe- 
dition has just sent to the Museum a ship- 
ment of one hundred and forty-eight bird 
skins from Paraguay. Colonel Roosevelt 
will probably return early in April and it is 
expected that he will deliver his first public 
lecture to the members of the American 
Museum. 

Mr. Donald B. MacMillan and the 
other members of the Crocker Land expedi- ' 
tion are in winter quarters at Etah, the old 
camp of Peary on the coast of Greenland, as 
published in the October, 1913, Journal. 
No word has been received from the expedi- 
tion since the account of the arrival at Etah. 
Greetings from the Museum were sent at the 
beginning of the New Year by the Marconi 
Wireless Company of Canada, through the 
courtesy of Mr. G. J. Desbarats, Deputy 
Minister of the Naval Service at Ottawa. 

Besides the courses of lectures on history 
and geography which have been arranged for 
school children [noted in the January Jour- 
nal], the Museum announces the following 
lectures on subjects connected with natural 
history: March 26, "The Sea Creatures of 
Our Shores," Mr. Roy W. Miner; April 2, 
"The Birds of Our Parks," Dr. G. Clyde 
Fisher; April 16, "Fur-bearers Found 
Within Fifty Miles of New York City," 
Mr. H. E. Anthony; April 23, "Wild Flow- 
ers of the Vicinity of New York City," Dr. 
Fisher. 

Science stories for the childrcm of mem- 
bers will be told on Saturday mornings at 
10:30 and will include subjects and lecturers 
as follows: March 7, "Seals at Home," 
Roy C. Andrews; March 14, "Water Bab- 
ies," Roy W. Miner; March 21, "Our 
Neighbors in Feathers," Frank M. Chapman; 



80 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



March 28, "Katydids, Crickets and Other 
Insect People," R. L. Ditmars. 

Dr. p. J. Oettingek has presented to the 
Museum his entire collection of ores gathered 
through a lifetime spent in Mexico and vari- 
ous other parts of the mining world. The 
collection consists of about thirteen hundred 
specimens of silver, gold, lead and zinc ores. 

Dr. H. J. Spinden of the department of 
anthropology is carrying on archaeological 
explorations in Central America. 

Mr. W. DeW. Miller has recently 
published a paper of seventy-three pages on 
a Review of the Classification oj the Kingfishers 
which makes notable changes in the arrange- 
ment of the various species, dividing the 
family into three subfamilies instead of the 
two commonly recognized. The changes are 
based on both external and internal charac- 
ters and also have the corroborative support 
of geographic distribution. 

Our common belted kingfisher is the 
representative of one subfamily, CerylincB, 
the only one of the three whose members are 
found in both hemispheres, but we shall 
know him no more under the name Ceryle 
for this proves to be the exclusive property 
of the African black and white bird. The 
beautiful little European kingfisher, the 
Alcedo or Alcyon of the ancients, the har- 
binger of fair weather, typifies another sub- 
family, Alcedinince. It is restricted to the 
eastern hemisphere and with the exception 
of one genus does not occur in the Australian 
region. The third and largest group, Dace- 
lonince, containing the greatest number and 
variety of species is, with the exception of 
two genera, confined to the AustraUan and 
Indian regions. It includes those species 
having the habits of flycatchers and those 
that feed largely on small reptiles. 

The cover photograph of this number of 
the Journal is from the painting "Tiger 
and Cobra" by Charles R. Knight. The 
March number will contain reproductions 
in black and white of a long series of his 
canvases and a reproduction in color of one 
of his notable fish paintings. 

Dr. Henry E. Crampton has just returned 
fiom a month's stay in Porto Rico where he 



placed the project of a complete scientific 
survey of Porto Rico before the Governor and 
other officials of the island with a view to se- 
curing the cooperation of the insular govern- 
ment in the work. He also conducted a 
general scientific and a special zoological re- 
connaissance preparatory to future intensive 
work in characteristic localities. During the 
course of the reconnaissance more than 1300 
miles of motoring and railroad travel were 
accomplished. Indian engravings were ex- 
amined and photographed at several locali- 
ties, notably inland from Utuado and along 
the Rio Blanco north of Naguabo. The 
general geology of the island was worked out 
as far as the peripheral sedimentary rocks, 
the inner limestones and the central igneous 
formations are concerned. Limestone cav- 
erns in three places — Corozal, Aguas Buenas 
and Ciales — were explored and photo- 
graphed. Fossil-bearing strata were re- 
corded in several localities and representative 
specimens secured. Also zoological coUect- 
tions were brought back from various caves, 
meadows, forests and plantations. 

Those interested in the work of Mr. 
Vilhjdlmur Stefdnsson, for four years con- 
nected with the American Museum in the 
Stefdnsson-Anderson Arctic expedition and 
now leader of the Canadian Arctic expedition, 
will be glad to learn definitely that the report 
is false which appeared in the newspapers in 
November stating the loss of the "Mary 
Sachs," one of the vessels of the expedition. 
The news that the "Mary Sachs" together 
with the "Alaska" is safe in winter quarters 
at Collinson Point, fifty miles from Flaxman 
Island, arrived December 23 from Dr. R. M. 
Anderson, second in command of the expedi- 
tion, and finally from the explorer himself 
when he cabled the New York Times," . . . 
On December 14 I reached Collinson Point 
and found both schooners safe wint(^ring in 
the bay," and again in speaking of the 
spring plans for the ships, "I shall proceed 
with both [the 'Alaska' and the 'Mary 
Sachs'] to Herschcl whenever possible... 
The 'Alaska' will proceed to Coronation 
Gulf and the 'Sachs' will undertake the work 
of the ' Karluk ' if the ' Karluk' is not reported 
by the time of the first opportunity to sail 
from Herschel." 



VOLUME XIV 



MARCH, If 14 



^w ^ * '-" - /=^ ^.> 




iAM^ — Ml^ 



[MBER 3 



ii?5=?-— ^p- 



'SlTY OF TO^' 



Ci^^ 




AMERICAN MUSEUM 
JOURNAL 




TWENTY CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

President 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. P. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of the City of New York 
William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York 
Cabot Ward, President op the Department of Parks 
George F, Baker Henry C. Frick Sbth Low 

Albert S. Bickmore Madison Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Archer M. Huntington John B. Trevor 

R. Fulton Cutting Arthur Curtiss James Felix M. Warburg 

Thomas DeWitt Cutler Walter B. James George W. Wickersham 

James Douglas A. D. Juilliard 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 

Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
other parts of the world. The membership fees are, 

Annual Members $ 10 Fellows $ 500 

Sustaining Members (annually). ... 25 Patrons 1000 

Life Members 100 Associate Benefactors 10,000 

Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information 
concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public 
education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department 
for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also 
be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. 

Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens 
for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. 

The Mitla Restaurant in the cast basement is reached by tbe elevator and is open 
from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla 
room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple 
ruins at Mitla, Mexico. 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV MARCH, 1914 Number 3 



CONTENTS 

Cover, " The Sabre-tooth Tiger " 

From a canvas in the possession of the Museum, by Charles R. Knight 

Charles R. Knight — Painter and Sculptor of Animals 83 

With an introduction on the union of art and science in the American Museum 
Color plate of Bermuda fishes reproduced through the courtesy of the Century Company; 
many plates in black and white to show the artist's work with modern animals; six repro- 
ductions from canvases owned by the Museum of restorations of extinct animals to indicate 
the progression of life through the Age of Reptiles and the Age of Mammals 

Collecting in Cuba Frank E. Lutz 99 

Field work in Cuba for comparison with the environments and insect faunas of Florida 

Maya Art and its Development George Grant MacCurdy 107 

Discussion of the prehistoric art of Yucatan with a review of Herbert J. Spinden's memoir 
on Maya Art 

The Wild Ass of Somaliland Carl E. Akeley 113 

Museum Notes 118 



Mary Cynthia Dickerson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 
1907, at the Post-Offlce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal, 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




Pholo by Mix 



CHARLES R. KNIGHT 
PAINTER AND SCULPTOR OF ANIMALS 



ra 



The American Museum Journal 



Volume XIV 



MARCH, 1914 



Number 3 



CHARLES R. KNIGHT — PAINTER AND SCULPTOR 

OF ANIMALS 

"WITH AN INTRODUCTION RELATIVE TO THE UNION OF ART AND 
SCIENCE IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

Illustrations! from the canvases of the Artist 



THERE are many people who 
know something of the Ameri- 
can Museum of the past — of 
its small beginning in the Arsenal in 
Central Park and its change to the new 
building, the central wing of the present 
structure; of its many years of strictly 
technical exhibits, systematic collections 
like some still to be 
seen as in the 
North American 
bird hall; of the 
addition of the 
south facade and 
the west wing and 
the gradual intro- 
duction of exhibits 
more adapted to 
the needs and the 
pleasure of the peo- 
ple. 

We know that 
the construction of 
its buildings has al- 
ways been in the 
hands of architect's 

of a high order, that its exhibits have 
been under the supervision of a staff of 
more or less note in the scientific world. 
Do we know that now its exhibits and the 
newly-planned east facade of the build - 

> Illustrations copyrighted by the American 
Museum of Natural History, the Century Com- 
pany and Charles R. Knight. 




Leopard drawinj; 



ing are calling to the work not only 
scientists, not only architects, but also 
various noted representatives from the 
guild that has the creation of the beau- 
tiful its aim — namely, sculptors and 
painters. It is interesting in this con- 
nection that almost the first step toward 
the foundation of science museums in this 
country was made 
in Philadelphia at 
the close of the 
eighteenth century 
by Charles Wilson 
Peale, an artist 
who had first been 
a taxidermist. He 
was a man of fame 
as a portrait paint- 
er of the great men 
of his time, and by 
painting a portrait 
of himself in his 
museum he made 
this early step 
toward science mu- 
seums an unforget- 
able one in histoiy. This picture is 
reproduced through the courtesy of the 
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 

To-day in the American Museum 
Hobart Nichols, one of our rising land- 
scape painters, is continually called upon 
to paint large background canvases for 
cycloramic groups, and similar work is 

83 



Property of the Artist 
showing pencil technique 




Courtesy of Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 
CHARLES WILSON PEALE IN HIS MUSEUM. PHILADELPHIA. 1777 

Noted portrait artist of the last quarter of the elRhteenth century, who made one of the first 
steps toward the Inauguration of science maseums in this country. (The Charleston Museum 
is 8upi)Osed to be the oldest museum in America.] Many of his ideas regarding artistic ex- 
hibition we are Just beginning to carry into effect to-day. This portrait of Peale by himself 
is the proi)erty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 



84 



Prnperly of Ihc Museum 



done by Robert Bruce Horsfall, Carl 
Rungius and Charles J. Hittell. Charles 
R. Knight has planned a series of murals 
to surround the halls of fossil mammals; 
E. W. Deming has made sketches for a 
mural series which has been accepted 
for the Plains Indian hall; Will S. Taylor 
is the creator of six large mural canvases 
in the North Pacific hall — where also 
are Eskimo paintings by Frederick A. 
Stokes — and Mr. Taylor in his studio 
in the northwest tower of the Museum 
is working at present on a second series 
to show Indian ceremonials. Howard 
McCormick is painting a canvas 19 by 
48 feet, in the hall of the Southwest 
Indians to form the background for a 
group of figures which are being made 
by the sculptor Mahonri M. Young; and 
so on. Various mural studies have been 
copied from old cave paintings by Albert 
Operti who also has painted some back- 
grounds for groups. Carl E. Akeley, a 
newly recognized sculptor, engaged im- 
mediately in the work of mounting an 
elephant group for the Museum, has been 
given charge of the plans for the future 
African hall, into which will be drawn 
A. Phimister Proctor and other sculptors 
and artists. 

It is a new era for museums and for 
the American Museum in particular, and 



it is but begun. Scientist, sculptor and 
painter will go on with work more closely 
amalgamated in exhibition. Architect, 
sculptor and painter will continue hand 
in hand in the construction of buildings. 
Thus results will always become more 
satisfying to the millions of people who, 
because limited in opportunities for edu- 
cation and obliged to live for the most 
part in humble surroundings, will look 
more and more to the free museum and 
its exhibits for instruction and for the 
beauty, gentle or austere, their imagi- 
nations crave. 

The new era for museums in America 
is of course but a part of a larger move- 
ment felt in many lines of thought and 
work and it correlates closely with the 
increase in free art and music of the 
highest class, of free education in many 
things ideal along with the practical, of 
all conditions tending toward a spirit- 
ualizing of the race over and above the 
rapid material advance. 

Understandingthis, we give unstintedly 
of what we have — interest, time, work 
or money. We can but give ourselves 
more gladly when we look ahead and 
realize that the people of America can 
be consciously guided to a future great 
in a degree we to-day can conceive but 
cannot compass, and that the guidance 




Two of Knight's sketches for murals in the fossil halls of the Museum 



85 




>1 the Museum 



AllosauTus feeding on the remains of an amphibious dinosaur. — Restoration of a carnivorous 
dinosaur from Wyoming representative of the Age of Reptiles. The artist has shown the ferocious 
reptilian head, with huge mouth bristling with sabre-like teeth, the large birdlike hind limbs, the 
tail used in balancing and the sharp talons of the feet. Although this conception of the animal 
has been elaborated from detailed anatomical studies, the finished picture has no suggestion of the 
laboratory but instead the animal seems alive and in a natural habitat 




Property of the Museum 
Ornilholeitea — Restoration of a small carnivorous dinosaur of the Age of Reptiles, from Wyom- 
ing. This dinosaur is a biped like Allosaurus but Its proportions are light and graceful as compared 
with the larger members of the group 
80 




ICHTHYOSAURUS- 



Froperty of the Museum 
RESTORATION OF A MARINE REPTILE 



This catch-word of popular zoology, Ichthyosaurus (the first part signifying "fish," the second 
"lizard"), is one of nature's deceptions. Just as you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but 
as Professor Gadow says, you can make a purse, so nature could not make a real fish out of a crawling 
reptile but she could make a fair imitation. Ichthyosaurus is a reptile as much as is a crocodile or a 
lizard but it is covered over with a fishlike (or rather porpoise-like) skin. The fore feet have turned into 
paddles; the skin on the back forms a dorsal fin. The fin on the tail is flshlike in form. All these 
features are exquisitely preserved in some of the wonderful fossils found at Solenhofen in Germany with 
the contoiu* of body, back-fin and paddles outlined in the rock. The Ichthyosaurs are viviparous, and 
Knight's painting represents the newly born yoimg swimming along with the mother in purstiit of a 
school of flsh. The Museum specimen on which this restoration was based contains the remains of a 
brood of unborn young 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



is to come largely through free educa- 
tional organizations like the museum. 
We give of ourselves the more eagerly 
when we know that we are building not 
only for the appreciable results of to-day 
and affecting the future not only through 
inherited and traditional results from 



craftsman in the work, every seeker to 
set forth the truth, to do the utmost in 
him; every man who finances such 
monuments of art and science to give 
generously that he may get the highest 
results the times can give; and especially 
does it behoove e^•erv authority in 




Property of the Museum 
TyloHauruK — Kostoration of a marine lizard from Kansas. Tyloaaurus is a relic of tlio time when 
the sea spread up from the Gulf of Mexico all through the Middle West. In Kansas the chalky deposits 
of this inland sea in some places are packed with remains of reptiles, fishes, sea lilies and a host of other 
marine types. The Tyloaaurus itself is almost a true sea serpent. Two fishes are shown jumping out of 
the water to escape the onslaught of the sea monster 



to-<lay, hut also that we are raising 
permanent monuments of art and 
science, some of which will be of such 
excellence that they will stand as a 
stimulus to the coming centuries, be- 
sides showing what we could do in this 
twentieth century. It behooves everv 



charge of the work that he choose 
wisely his craftsmen, men of training 
and thought, scientists of sincere pur- 
po.se, artists of eagerness of devotion, 
that the required excellence and p(>rma- 
nence be arrived at — the former making 
the latter a stimulus and blessing in- 



ART AND SCIENCE IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



89 



stead of 
ment. 



as far-reaching a discourage- 



One of the first men to be drawn into the 
American Museum to help in the correla- 
tion of science and art was Charles R. 
Knight and the work was financed by the 
late Mr. J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan. He came in 1896 to 
make restorations of fos- 
sil animals under the 
supervision of Professor 
Henry Fairfield Osborn. 
He had always liked best 
to draw animals, although 
at sixteen years of age he 
had begun studying at 
the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art, working in 
ornamental design and 
architecture. Also he 
had studied at the Archi- 
tectural League under 
George de Forest Brusli 
and Willard L. Metcalf. 
In fact he had spent three 
years at Lamb's design- 
ing stained glass win- 
dows, since those early 
days, but his interest al- 
ways lay in animal por- 
traiture. 

All the old keepers at 
the Central Park Zoo re- 
member him when he 
was a very small boy and 
was brought by his father 
on Saturdays to draw 
the animals. This was 
before the organization 
of the Zoological Park in 
the Bronx which brought 
such large opportunities to him, with a 
freedom for work far in advance of that 
allowed in the zoological parks of Europe, 
where however he has done considerable 
study. It was while drawing at the 



Jardin des Plantes in Paris that his work 
was stimulated by the admiration of 
Gerome and Fremiet with whom he had 
personal acquiantance. 

In 1896 when he came to the American 
Museum he brought a full equipment: 
mastery in the technique of pencil, water 




Arsinoilherium — Restoration of a herbivorous mammal. The scene 
is in Egypt on the site of the former Lalte Mojris. There in the 
far-off Eocene times flourished a multitude of strange animals. In 
the painting the Arsinoilherium, named in honor of the Egyptian 
queen, stands at bay warding off a snarling pack of wolflike mammals 



color and oil, and knowledge of the ana- 
tomical structure of living animals gained 
not from photographs but from life itself 
— these added to enthusiasm. His work 
that he began then and has continued 



90 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



at intervals during the years since, 
constitutes an entirely original line of 
study that to-day is being imitated with 
more or less success in various Ameri- 
can and foreign museums. The recent 
series of life-size restorations exhibited 
in the Hagenbeck Park of Hamburg 
for instance, was largely influenced by 
Knight's early work. 

Mr. Knight combines in his restora- 
tions realism and artistic atmosphere, 
and backed bv the facts of science and 



fossil remains of the skeleton, then to 
place the model in the sun for realistic 
effects in drawing. 

Before the time of Knight's work, all 
restorations of extinct animals, such as 
those of Cuvier from fossils found 
around Paris and those of Owen, had 
been entirely without artistic effect, and 
while the restorations of Owen were ana- 
tomically correct, the many made by 
the English artist, Waterhouse Hawkins, 
for Princeton and other museums were 




Property of the Museum 
Gigantic sabre-tooth tiger of the early part of the Pleistocene Epoch in Brazil. The sabre-tooth is 
shown stalking out to the edge of the cliff at sunset and snarling his defiance at some beast below. Per- 
haps he sees a huge ground sloth and will bound down and tear the unwieldy creature with his dagger- 
like tusks. Some of his relatives ranged into North America but he is characteristic of Brazil 



the opinions of a man experienced in 
making accurate deductions, he suc- 
ceeded in making these animals, which 
have not walked the earth for a million 
or more of years, look as though they are 
alive and in their natural haunt. It was 
in connection with these restorations 
that he began his work as a sculptor, 
adding thus a new medium. He found 
it of practical help to model the animal 
first, working up the form from the 



characterized by lack of accuracy. Es- 
pecially is this true of the models to show 
extinct reptiles. In great contrast stand 
Knight's large series of paintings and 

models.^ 

I Knight's series of prehistoric restorations pro- 
duced between 1896 and 1900, are now exhibited in 
the fossil vertebrate hall of the Museum and have 
been reproduced in many foreign museums, nota- 
bly Paris, London and Munich. A .second series 
comprising in part the same animals, is now under 
way, based upon more recent and precise knowl- 
edge both of the structure and the probable habits 
of the various types. 




Property of the Museum 
Huge Imperial mammoth, representing the Pleistocene Epoch and the beginning of a temperate 
climate in North America. This mammoth, with a height at the shoulder of more than thirteen feet, 
over-topped the largest existing elephants 




Property of the Museum 
American mastodon — Restoration founded on the ' ' Warren mastodon ' ' in the American Museum. 
This lumbering old elephant was abundant over all the Western States after the close of the Glacial 
Period and probably before the advent of man. It is shown in a north temperate forest 

91 




Property of the Artist 

Study for painting of setters 

One of Mr. Knight's best Icnown paintings is of the two prize winning collies, Blue Prince and 
Wishaw Clinker, which belonged to the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan 



Mr. Knight is known to the world 
however as a painter and sculptor of 
modern animals also, and New York has 
recently had the unusual opportunity of 
seeing a large collection of his work in a 
public exhibition at the Museum. Hith- 
erto he has been known by the people 
who have seen one or more of his scat- 
tered works, those 
for instance in the 
homes of Mrs. J. 
Pierpont Morgan or 
of Professor Henry 
Fairfield Osborn, of 
Mrs. Dean Sage of 
Albany, of Mrs. 
Archibald Rogers 
and Mrs. E. H. 
Harriman of New- 
York. Some have 
seen his work at 
Woods Hole where 
he often spends the 




Jaguar head in pencil 



summer, given every facility through the 
courtesy of the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries stationed there and of the Ma- 
rine Biological Laboratory. He particu- 
larly excels in these fish paintings, whether 
the canvas is of highly decorative charac- 
ter such as the panels owned by Professor 
Osborn or those more directly scientific, 
like the series of 
shark paintings com- 
pleted for the United 
States Government 
in the summer of 
1913. Others have 
known his models of 
the African elephant 
heads on the north 
facade of the new 
elephant house in 
the Bronx Zoological 
Park — a commis- 
sion gained through 
an anonymous 

93 



competition — and also the 
life-size heads of tapir and rhi- 
noceros for the same building 
and the heads that decorate 
the zebra house. 

In this exhibition at the 
Museum there has been an 
opportunity to see brought 
together more than one hun- 
dred canvases and bronzes, 
loans from their owners and 
pieces still in the artist's 
hands, and the effect has 
been to all who saw it unex- 
pectedly convincing. His 
work is marvelous in its 
range of methods of tech- 
nique. Where is there an- 
other American artist still 
relatively a young man, who 
excels in pencil, water color 
and oil and emphatically as 
a sculptor? Again, his sub- 
jects are taken broadly from 
the various classes of the 
animal world and thus the 
diversity of subject is almost 
as surprising as the range 
of technique. Canvases or 
bronzes of tigers, leopards, 
lions and pumas, are dis- 
played beside those of dogs 
or bears or buffaloes, beside 
harpy eagles and pheasants, 
Bermuda or Sargasso fishes, 
elephants or great prehistoric 
dinosaurs. 

Expert opinion can onI\ 
pronounce the quality of the 
work of the highest. It va- 
ries greatly it is true, his 
great strength lies in his 
work with the big felines, 
while some of it was done 
merely as illustrative work 
appearing in magazines. Yet 
when we look at such a paint- 




Property of the A Hist 

Harpy eagle with macaw. T"his canvas is a most happy study 
in color, handling with great slcill the brilliant plumage of the two 
birds, besides being original and unusual in subject 

95 




i 



Entrance to elephant house in the Kronx Zoological Park. 
Model of African elephant head by Knight 

ing as the "Leopard with Flamingo" 
which Brush pronounces of great imagi- 
native merit — a picture good in com- 
position, splendid in 
technique, fine in 
drawing, beautiful 
in color, we distinct- 
ly feel that criticism 
is vain, that no other 
painter in America 
has perhaps ever 
done so fine a pure 
art thing of animals. 
Also when we look 
at such a painting 
as the "Tiger and 
Cobra," criticism is 
vain for we are look- 



ing at the work of a master 
of color. 

It is worthy of note that 
his pictures have no ear- 
M^ '"• marks, unless the mural char- 
T^ acter might be termed such, 

by which they can always be 
recognized, as is the case in 
the work of many artists. He 
has apparently made no at- 
tempt to imitate the work of 
any artist or school of artists 
or to follow along the line of 
any style or technique in any 
individual piece of his own 
work. He attempts each 
time to make a portrait or 
an imaginative group true to 
life and his own idea, with 
an artistic setting, apparently 
delighting in adjusting him- 
self anew both to subject and 
technique. 

We have heard little or 
nothing in recent years how- 
ever, either in Europe or 
America of animal painters. 
It has been true in the art 
world that if a man did 
not paint cattle or sheep, portraits, 
figures, still life or landscape he did not 
paint anything, the cattle, and sheep 




Book rest — One of the artist '.s small Ijronzes 



96 



f i t. 




Courtesy of The Century Company 

ANGEL FISH IN THE SEAS OF BERMUDA 
BY CHARLES R. KNIGHT 



98 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



being recognized as objects of art be- 
cause in the past they were painted by 
certain well-known foreign artists. The 
market has been so ruled by precedent 
and fashion that no first-class painter 
has dared paint any other animals. 
The painter of horses and dogs has been 
able to find little market for his paintings 
except in stock magazines and the paint- 
er of wild animals has had to place his 
pictures in sporting magazines. A few 
years hence it will perhaps have been 
proved that Knight working single- 
mindedly along the line of his interest 
has had some influence toward bringing 
about the condition in which work 
stands on its merit, irrespective of any 
fashion in dictated subject. What is no 
doubt true, is that there is already well 
started a small movement, of which 
Knight stands in the front rank among 
the forerunners, for the wild animal in 
art, just as there has been in literature, 
and that this movement will work itself 



out during the next half century in many 
additions to our animal bronzes and par- 
ticularly in animal mural decorations. 

The character of Knight's portrayal 
of animals is one about which there has 
been much controversy among artists. 
He paints nature as he sees it. He is so 
great a lover of truth that the "Tiger 
and Cobra" for instance was made not 
merely from studies of the tiger from life; 
the tiger was modeled and a tiger skin 
spread over this model in the sun to get 
the basis of realism in color, light and 
shadow on which to build the artist's 
picture. Like the old Barbizon P^rench 
school he tries only to learn from nature, 
portraying the exact truth of form and 
color, as subtly affected however by 
light in an atmosphere. Like La Farge 
who was largely influenced by this 
school, Knight adds something of the 
scientist — in fact of the true naturalist 
— to his ability as an artist. 

M. C. D. 




Properly of the Mtiaeum 



Restoration of the dinosaur Diplodocus 



COLLECTING IN CUBA 



TEN THOUSAND INSECTS COLLECTED PRELIMINARY TO A COMPARA- 
TIVE STUDY OF THE FAUNAS OF FLORIDA AND CUBA 



By Frank E. Lutz 



THE work which the Museum and 
the outside entomologists who 
have kindly joined with the 
Museum have been doing on the insects 
of Florida, naturally raises questions as 
to the relationships between this fauna 
and those of other regions. The large 
island of Cuba lies not much over a 
hundred miles to the south and yet, 
judging from the published records, 
there are very few species common to 
the two places. One of the reasons for 
this is that Cuban records are largely 
from tropical forests and precipitous 
mountains, while Florida is made up 
for the most part of either swamps or 
open pine-palmetto woods on a level 
sandy plain. If extensive stretches of 
the latter environments existed in Cuba, 
especially in the western part without 
a goodly percentage of Floridian insects 
the condition was in urgent need of ex- 
planation. We learned from Dr. Na- 
thaniel Britton that similar environ- 
ments are found west of Havana and 
after receiving valuable suggestions from 
him, Mr. Charles W. Leng and the writer 
started out to see what could be found. 

As a matter of course one of the first 
things we did after reaching Havana 
was to call on Dr. Carlos de la Torre 
than whom no one is more familiar with 
Cuban natural history or more willing 
and able to help other students of it. 
Unfortunately the necessity of giving 
college examinations prevented his going 
to the field with us and we started out 
alone — almost regretting that Cuba 
has such an excellent school system. 

A rural electric road took us about 
thirty-six miles to Guanajay in the east- 



ern foothills of the Cordillera de los Or- 
ganos, the mountains of western Cuba, 
and an automobile stage from there to the 
shore at Cabanas. This stage ride is a 
pleasant one through fertile thoroughly- 
cultivated country, and owing to the 
poor condition of the road, is rather 
exciting. Through the kindness of 
friends of the Museum, we were given 
lodgings in the office building of a large 
sugar plantation at Cabanas. The 
miles upon miles of waving fields and 
the large factory where cane goes in and 
sugar comes out were interesting, but the 
important thing for us was the shore. 
Mangrove swamps were within walking 
distance and by hiring a sailboat for 
"whatever you would be pleased to 
give" (provided it was enough), we 
reached the strip of sandy beach at the 
mouth of the harbor. At the same time 
Messrs. William T. Davis and Charles 
E. Sleight were collecting on the Florida 
Keys just across the strait. They too 
were in mangrove swamps and on sandy 
beaches. Thanks to this arrangement 
as nearly an exact comparison as it 
seems possible to get can be made for 
this season of the year and these envi- 
ronments. 

But the upland here is not the upland 
of Florida, so we returned to Havana 
and set out the next day for Pinar del 
Rio, capital of the province of the same 
name. The railroad nearly crosses the 
island in the low and relatively level 
province of Havana to get around the 
eastern ends of the mountains before it 
turns west. The ride to Pinar is through 
country largely given over to tobacco; 
by far the dominant tree is the royal 

99 




View from Rural Guard Quarters, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The dominant tree is the royal palm 



palm. Pines and palmettos were not 
seen in sufficient abundance to give us 
much hope of a close comparison with 
Florida, although the parklike aspect 
of the country, the grassland with 
scattered trees, was similar to what we 
wanted. 

One of the pleasures of traveling on a 
scientific errand consists in finding so 
many friends of the work. Among 
such at Pinar was Dr. Gonzalez Valez, 
who put his time entirely at our disposal 
and accompanying us on most of our 
trips acted as interpreter when our 







There is an automobile stage running from Pinar across the moun 
tains to the north coast 
100 



Spanish failed. We profited by sugges- 
tions from Dr. Cuesta and by specimens 
from his collection, and Commandante 
Cepeda of the Rural Guards offered to 
do anything in his power — which was a 
great deal. Preliminary scoutings in 
the vicinity of the town confirmed the 
misgivings we had from views out of the 
car window. Collecting was poor and 
not Floridian. We therefore accepted 
the Commandante's offer of an army 
wagon to take us to Cerro Cabras or 
Goat Hill. An obliging soldier went 
with us and a negro muleteer whose 
skill in handling his 
charges was exceeded 
only by the risks he 
took after we left the 
carretera or good road, 
for the camino real or 
" kings highway." At 
("erro Cabras we found 
some pines and "live 
oaks" but not a Flori- 
dian topography. Com- 
l)are this with what we 
found the next day — 
Floridian pines, palmet- 
tos and grasses on a 




sandy level plain, stretching from about 
six miles south of the town into the 
distance as far as the eye could reach 
except toward the north. The insects 
also are far more Floridian than in the 
other places we had visited, even more 
so than near the coast within sight, 
figuratively speaking, of Key West from 
which the mountains now separated us 
however. Just how Floridian they are 
remains to be seen. We beat the insects 
and spiders off the trees into umbrellas; 
swept the vegetation with nets; chased 
the creatures flying in the blazing sun; 
chopped into logs and dug into the white, 
hot sand. At the same time Messrs. 
Sleight and Davis were doing the same 
thing in Florida. When the specimens 
have been labeled and classified we shall 
compare notes, but it can be said even 
now that were Cuba all like this a large 
percentage of the species would be com- 
mon to both places. It is not to be 
understood that the fauna is identical 
with that of Florida. There were many 
Floridian species absent as well as non- 
Floridian species present — that is, al- 
though this locality is the most Floridian 
we found it is not an absolute copy and 



a better comparison may be dis- 
covered in the future. 

The problem for Mr. Leng and 
myself had now shifted slightly. 
Here was a sort of Cuban Florida 
and we had returned to the spot 
until new finds became relatively 
rare. If environment plays a large 
role in distribution, the fauna of 
the mountains, even though they 
be but a few miles distant, ought 
to differ more from the fauna of 
this spot than that of Florida 
does; whereas, if isolation or other 
factors are the important ones, the 
opposite would be found to be true. 
Fortunately there is an automobile 
stage running from Pinar across 
the mountains to the north coast. Our 
first stop was at Banos San Vicente 
near Viiiales. The mountains are largely 
limestone and full of caves, many of the 
caves containing streams. Clifi*s rather 
than slopes are the characteristic thing 
and frequently the valleys are enormous 
sinks apparently caused by the falling 
in of the roofs of caves. The vegetation 
in this region is rich and distinctly more 
tropical than in those previously visited. 
Epiphytes of various species are common 
on the trees; orchids, delicate ferns and 
beautiful vines crowd every crevice in 
the rocks; but I do not recall seeing a 
single pine in this region — where we 
spent a pleasant profitable week and 
after each day's work refreshed ourselves 
in the warm sulphur baths from which 
the place gets its name. 

Going still farther north, on the other 
side of the mountains, we found the 
remains of a large pine forest which had 
been destroyed by a hurricane three 
years ago. Because of the copper which 
is found here, this region is likely to 
become better known, but now it is 
practically uninhabited. Finally we 
reached the north shore and the man- 

xoi 




Mangrove swamps near Cabanas. Environmental conditions in the mangrove swamps of south- 
ern Florida appear to be identical with those found here. In cooperation with Messrs. William T. 
Davis and Charles E. Sleight collections were made in both places at the same time 




Floridian pines, palmettos and grasses on a sandy level plain near Pinar del Rio. 
Cuban locality which will offer the best comparison with the Klorldlan upland 



This is the 



102 



COLLECTING IN CUBA 



103 



groves much as at Cabanas. This 
furnished a second collection to compare 
with that from the Floridian coast. 

Returning to Pinar we revisited the 
pine-palmetto region and then Mr. Leng 
went to Havana to study the Gundlach 
collection. This is without doubt the 
most complete collection of Cuban 
insects to be found in any one place in 
the world. They are in small glass- 
covered boxes tightly sealed with 
gummed paper. Gundlach was a most 
ardent collector and most of the entomo- 
logical literature concerning Cuba is 
based on the material secured by him 
and his friend Poey. Part of Poey's 
collection is in Philadelphia but before 
it was sent Gundlach picked out for 
himself everything he did not already 
have. As the collection is thus of great 
historical value it is well that it is so 
carefully preserved, but since the speci- 
mens cannot be removed from their 
boxes, minute examination is impossible 
and much of it is useless for further 
study. 

I went to Guane, the western terminus 
of the railroad. On account of the rains 
the road from the station to the town 
was out of commission and we had to 
drive four miles through 
fields, circling the town 
and coming in from the 
opposite side. The stage 
was small and crowded 
to its limit, the mules 
balked several times, the 
harness broke twice, and 
we were an hour and a 
half making the trip. 
The mountains at Guane 
are across the river from 
the town and as the river 
was swollen by recent 
rains I did not examine 
them. They appear to 
be of the same type as 



at Vifiales except that the peaks are 
isolated. Between showers I collected 
near the town in the grass fields con- 
taining scattered palmettos and other 
trees or bushes but no pines. When 
the time came to leave I still retained 
vivid memories of the stage ride from 
the station and also I wished to go early 
in order to collect from some flowers I 
had noticed near the railroad, so I ar- 
ranged for a coche particular. I thought 
I was going to get a four-wheeled con- 
traption of some sort but it turned out 
to be a cart, interesting in appearance 
and rather effective when it came to 
going across lots. If shaking is a 
remedy for a torpid liver, this cart, 
hitched to a pony of uncertain gait, is 
to be recommended. 

Havana, clean clothes, and a good 
dinner with Dr. de la Torre and Mr. 
Leng were reached shortly after sunset. 
Mr. Leng left for New York the next 
day, but I remained in Havana and 
"helped" Dr. de la Torre pick out from 
his collection more than six hundred 
specimens of the rarest Cuban land 
shells as his gift to the Museum. These 
represented one hundred and thirty-nine 
species, most of which were not hitherto 




The cache particular, a two-wheeled cart, hitched to a pony of 
uncertain gait 




Frequently the valleys are enormous sinks apparently caused by the falling in of the roofs of ca\es 



possessed by us. I then started for the 
east end of the island in order to visit 
Mr. Charles T. Ramsden and to get an 
idea of the conditions east of Havana. 

Dr. de la Torre is convinced from his 
study of the land shells that Cuba is 
really three islands or groups of islands 
which have been joined either by an 
uplift or by the filling in of the separating 
channels. The mountains of Pinar del 
Rio are the remains of one, the province 
of Havana being the site of the channel 
which separated it from the middle 
island or group of islands and the Oriente 
or Santiago province is the third. 

The run from Havana to Santiago 
takes at least twenty-four hours and 
since it was desirable to make as much 
as possible of the journey by day I 
stopped off at Zaza del Medio in the 
middle "island." The first night was 
spent in Zaza contrary to the advice of 
the station agent. Collecting was good 
the next day but that night I took a 

104 



train on the branch road to Sancti 
Spiritus and came back in the morning 
for the east bound train. I do not wish 
to disparage the accommodations at Zaza 
but the station agent was right. It is 
better to go to Sancti Spiritus to sleep. 
Waking moments there may be pleas- 
antly spent listening to the band in the 
pretty plaza or viewing the several old 
churches, one of which is said to have 
been built early in the sixteenth century. 
The ride to Santiago de Cuba had an 
interest, not met with previously, in 
that much of it was over a narrow way 
cut through liana-draped forests of 
mahogany and other tropical trees. 
Here and there are clearings almost all 
of which contain saw mills prophetic 
of the forest's doom. The train stopped 
at most of these clearings but occasion- 
ally an isolated homestead would flash 
by. At one, four men playing as nearly 
a real cricket game as four can, reminded 
the New Yorker that his countrymen 



COLLECTING IN CUBA 



105 



are not alone in the foreign invasion of 
Cuba although from Guane to Guanta- 
namo baseball has become the game of 
the country. 

Supper was eaten at Alto Cedro just 
before we took the dip down the moun- 
tains to the south shore at Santiago. 
The latter part of the journey was made 
in darkness but retraversed by day 
when going from Santiago to Guan- 
tanamo. At the latter place I was met 
by Mr. Ramsden and taken at once 
to the large sugar estate of which he is 
manager. Mr. Ramsden is a son of the 
British consul who was so helpful to 
Hobson's men after the sinking of the 
Merrimac. He is an ardent naturalist, 
having gathered together excellent col- 
lections of many groups of Cuban ani- 
mals but especially of birds, land 
mollusks, butterflies and sphingid moths. 



What is even more to the point, he knows 
what he has and the life of each in the 
field. He put horses and a trained 
negro assistant at my disposal for work 
during the day in the forest back of the 
cane fields and by night we collected the 
insects which came to the light as disre- 
gardful of the lights-out bell which rang 
at nine as I Mas of the rising bell which 
rang at four — interesting relics of slave 
days and even then, not meant for guests 
of the master. 

Mr. Ramsden seemed surprised at the 
poor showing we had in butterflies. I 
was ashamed of it myself, but when the 
choice came to us between sitting down 
and getting fifty specimens of small 
things some of which are probably new 
to science and chasing over rocks and 
through thorns for a high-flying Papilio 
— beautiful though it was — we us- 




Limestone caves in the mountains north of Vinales 



106 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ually let the Papilio fly. Mr. Ramsden, 
however gave the Museum more speci- 
mens and of rarer species than we could 
have procured by net. 

With a collector's sigh over the much 
that was left undone in environments so 
different from those studied in the west 
and a personal regret in leaving the kind 
hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsden, 
I went back to Santiago — or "Cuba" 
as it is called there — and was soon 
rounding the water-level cavern of 
Morro on the way to the task of sorting 



and getting the names of the ten thou- 
sand or more species brought back, 

Cuba is rich in interesting forms 
and offers many scientifically impor- 
tant problems of distribution and the 
effect of isolation. Not until we know 
and understand Cuba, can we explain 
the fauna of Florida to the north or of 
the islands to the east of it. But the 
typical Cuban fauna is being rapidly 
exterminated by the inroads of short- 
sighted civilization and the scientific 
work must be done soon. 




The castle of Morro near Santiago and its water-level cavern in the rocks 



MAYA ART AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 

REVIEW OF A NOTABLE WORK ON THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE 
PREHISTORIC MAYA RACE OF CENTRAL AMERICA^ 

By George Grant MacCurdy 

The following review is somewhat abbreviated from the very able discussion of the subject matter 
of Maya art which was courteoiisly given to the Journal, by Dr. George Grant MacCurdy of Yale, 
soon after the publication of Dr. Spinden's work in 1913. Dr. MacCurdy's review will be found pub- 
lished in full in Current Anthropological Literature for July-September, 1913. Dr. Spinden's memoir 
on Maya art consists of the results of three years of recent study added to the work for his thesis for the 
degree of doctor of philosophy at Harvard University in 1909. The very notable contribution of the 
work lies along the line of time sequence of ruins which gives the book, although so recent in appearance, 
an authoritative rank in the research on prehistoric art in Yucatan. — The Editor. 



THE theory of an Old World origin 
for New World civilization is 
characterized by the Author as 
wild speculation. Neither is it likely 
that Maya civilization originated south 
of its recognized limits. While future 
studies may trace it in its humble begin- 
nings to the coast region north of Vera 
Cruz, in "all essential and character- 
istic features it was developed on its own 
ground." From the accounts of the 
earliest European observers it appears 
that the golden age of Maya civilization 
long antedated the coming of the Euro- 
pean. On the other hand the religious 
ideas embodied in the ancient culture, 
and the art of writing and of recording 
time still survived. 

In any general treatment of Maya art 
much space should be given to the in- 
fluence of the serpent, whose "trail is 
over all the civilizations of Central 
America and southern Mexico." Al- 
though the serpent is seldom represented 
realistically it is fairly certain that the 
rattlesnake {Crotalus durissus) was the 
chief model .... The alternation of quick 
and slow curves and the prevalence of 
tapering flamelike masses strike the 
dominant note in Maya art. They are 

» A Study or Maya Art, its Subject Matter 
AND Historical Development. Herbert J. 
Spinden. With 286 illustrations in the text, 
29 plates and map. Memoirs of the Peabody 
Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 
Harvard University, vol. VI. Published by the 
Museum, Cambridge, 1913. 



derived from a serpentine original, as are 
also the double outline to distinguish the 
ventral from the dorsal region and the 
series of small circles representing scales. 
A typical representation of the head and 
anterior portion of the body of the ser- 
pent includes nose, nose scroll, nose plug, 
upper incisor teeth, molar teeth, jaw, 
supraorbital plate, ear plug, ear orna- 
ment, curled fang, tongue, lower jaw, 
beard, lower incisor tooth, belly mark- 
ings and back markings. With this as a 
key it is possible to interpret the more 
highly involved representations. The 
stamp of the serpent is also seen on 
various ceremonial objects, all of which 
are worthy of detailed study. . . . 

After the serpent the jaguar received 
the most attention from Maya artists 
and priests. The Temple of the Jaguars 
at Chichen Itza and the Jaguar Stairway 
at Copan are notable examples of the 
jaguar figure in architectural design, 
while the face of the jaguar is seen in 
many of the headdresses and breast- 
plates. The rain gods (Chacs) took the 
form of jaguars, and jaguar priests held 
sway among the Maya. Nor was the 
jaguar cult limited to the Maya civiliza- 
tion. It is mirrored in the ceramic, 
stone and metal art of Costa Rica and 
Chiriqui,^ far to the south of the most 
southern Maya cities. 



2 A Study of Chiriquian Antiquities. 
MacCurdy. 



G. G. 



107 



108 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The artistic and ceremonial impor- 
tance of birds and plumage in Maya art 
is very great. The figures range from 
realistic to vague and grotesque. The 
bird face tends on the one hand toward 
the serpent type and on the other toward 

the human as seen in glyphs The 

Author believes the anthropomorphic 
birds of the manuscripts to be minor 
deities, and notes a possible connection 
between the Roman-nosed god and a 
bird of some sort. He points out that 
the higher period glyphs, including the 
cycle, katun, and tun, commonly show 
birdlike noses. The hieroglyph for the 
month Kayab, once thought to be the 
head of a turtle, is shown to be the head 
of a macaw. The feather motive was 
frequently employed by Maya artists 
in drapery, headdresses, and even for 
moldings on the facades of buildings. 

As for miscellaneous animal forms, 
usually with distinct human attributes, 
the turtle, snail and bat deserve especial 
mention. Shells are used independently 
as details of dross. The deer, dog and 
peccary are generally represented in more 
or less realistic form. The reviewer 
would call attention here to the parallel- 
ism existing between the principal Maya 
figures with mixed attributes and those 
of the Costa Rica-Chiriqui region, where 
the parrot god, the jaguar god, and the 
alligator (instead of the serpent) god 
reign supreme. 

Symbols of death cast a shadow over 
Maya art, as seen in the codices, sculp- 
tures and even in architectural embellish- 
ment. Human sacrifice was not so ap- 
palling as among the Mexicans; there is 
however undeniable evidence of its exis- 
tence. Among the death symbols may 
be note' skulls, skeletons, separate 
bones, the maggot symbol (a device re- 
sembling the percentage sign), dotted 
lines connecting small circles, black spots 
and closed eyes. The hieroglyphs of 



the death god (God A) have been deter- 
mined with accuracy. As for astronom- 
ical signs, the sun, the moon, the impor- 
tant planets and the more conspicuous 
constellations were represented. The 
sun symbol (normal kin sign) occurs fre- 
quently; the moon sign appears in the 
codices on terms of apparent equality 
with the kin sign. Few hieroglyphs 
have as yet been deciphered; only those 
connected with numbers and the calen- 
dar have been determined. . . . 

Maya architecture is characterized 
by an elaborate grouping of the city as a 
whole, as seen to good advantage at 
Copan — a massive platform mound, 
with terraces and sunken courts; rising 
from the level of the platform mound 
are small pyramids crowned with temples, 
the principal mound overlooking a large 
plaza in which are set up stelse. As a 
rule Maya cities are built upon level 
ground; but in some cases, as at Palen- 
que for example, the assemblage of the 
city is modified by an accentuated topog- 
raphy. 

The buildings seem to have been 
largely of a religious nature. The 
dwellings of the common people were 
probably similar to the huts still in use 
among the natives of Yucatan. In fact 
such huts are seen in fresco at Chichen 
Itza. Between palace and temple there 
is no distinct line of demarcation. As 
regards elevation plans, one room was 
seldom placed directly over another, 
owing to the cumbersome method of con- 
struction. The ordinary wall construc- 
tion is not true masonry, but a rough 
concrete faced with stone. Building 
stones were seldom cemented together, 
but mortar was extensively used for 
floors and as a thin coating on walls. 
The principle of the corbcllatcd or false 
arch was doubtless understood by Maya 
builders. In all Maya vaults, " there is a 
projection of a few inches at the springing 



MAYA ART AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 



109 



of the vault on the inside," indicating 
that the arch was built over a wooden 
form. Maya roof structures are char- 
acterized by both the roof comb and the 
flying facade, the latter being the most 
common form of roof structure in north- 
ern Yucatan. The column, not found 
at all in the south, and the doorway are 
more or less closely associated. The 
cornice, taken in its broadest sense, is a 
special feature of Maya architecture. 
Gargoyles, used as waterspouts, occur at 
Copan. In fa9ade decoration the mask 
panel plays an important role. While 
it may have originated in more than one 
way, the mask as a rule clearly repre- 
sents the feathered serpent. Purely geo- 
metric motives occur on the buildings 
of northern Yucatan. These are seen 
not only as panels but also as string 
courses and all-over patterns. 

The purpose of the great monolithic 
monuments or stelse is uncertain. What- 
ever their significance, they admit of 
classification architecturally into inde- 
pendent and auxiliary or temple stelae. 
While stelae occur at nearly all the ruins 
of the south and west, only one has been 
noted at Palenque. The altar was par- 
ticularly developed at Copan and Quiri- 
gua. The most widespread type is 
drum-shaped, and may have originally 
represented a bundle. The more elabo- 
rate altars are characterized by animal 
motives. There are still many vestiges 
of color to show that the Maya painted 
not only their stone buildings but also 
their sculptures. 

Ceramics often affords the chief evi- 
dence bearing on the art of a people. 
Among the Maya however, ceramics 
was overshadowed by architecture. As 
everywhere else on the western hemi- 
sphere, pottery was shaped by hand. 
Some use was made of a block turned 
by heel and toe, but this is not the true 
potter's wheel. Pottery of a fine black 



or red paste with incised decorations was 
the most common type. Stamp deco- 
rations are unusual while figures in relief 
are frequently met with, as are also zoo- 
morphic and phytomorphic forms. Poly- 
chrome vessels of painted ware may be 
classed as the gems of ceramic art. 

Jadeite and other semiprecious stones 
were extensively used in the making of 
amulets and various small carved ob- 
jects, the most noteworthy of which is 
the so-called Leiden Plate with the 
"incised figure of an elaborately attired 
human being holding a Ceremonial Bar" 
on one side and a column of hieroglyphs 
on the other. Objects of metal, although 
rare, evince a skill fully equal to the 
metal work of the Isthmus or the Valley 
of Mexico. Light on Maya textile art 
may be had from a study of the monu- 
ments. 

Artistically the three Maya codices are 
of unequal merit; the Dresden is easily 
the best. But for its fragmentary con- 
dition Codex Peresianus would rank with 
the Dresden Codex. Both antedate the 
coming of the Spaniards by many cen- 
turies. The Tro-Cortesianus is of in- 
ferior workmanship and belongs to a 
later date. Attempts at decipherment 
have been many, the most important 
single contribution being Forstemann's 
Commentary 07i the Dresden Codex. All 
three manuscripts deal largely with reli- 
gious and astronomical matters; Codex 
Tro-Cortesianus in addition casts much 
light on things of everyday life. 

The Author's contributions to chrono- 
logical sequence are noteworthy. His 
method is to take up one city at a time 
beginning with the most archaic. He 
attempts to throw into its proper chrono- 
logical sequence the mass of sculpture on 
stelae, altars and the facade as well as 
interior decorations of the temples .... 
Tikal is believed to be one of the first 
Maya cities to become a center of art 



110 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



and culture. Quirigua, not far from 
Copan, flourished after the passing of 
the archaic period, that is, after the 
fifteenth katun. 

"Naranjo started well, but remained 
stagnant during the period from the 
fifteenth to the eighteenth katun, which 
was the most brilliant period in Copan 
and Quirigua.". .. .While the dates at 
Yaxchilan are early, none seem to reach 
as far back as the archaic period. The 
little known but important city of Pied- 
ras Negras is believed by the Author to 
have flourished after the fifteenth katun. 
The buildings are in such an ad- 
vanced stage of ruin as to make an archi- 
tectural study unavailing. Palenque, 
long famous for its temples and sculp- 
tured tablets, is still to be fully explored. 
The lack of easily worked stone led to the 
use of stucco as an art medium. The 
finest modeling known to Maya art is 
seen in the stucco work of Palenque. 
Here the handling of the pure profile is 
seen at its best and the anatomy of the 
human body is rendered with a fidelity 
unknown to other Maya cities. Palen- 
que belonged to a late period; and con- 
tributed much toward the development 
of the roof structure, the sanctuary and 
the portico. Here also are to be seen 
"the widest rooms, the thinnest walls, 
the most refined shapes and the most 
ideal interior arrangements to be found 
anywhere in the southern and western 
part of the Maya area." Palenque is 
classed among the latest cities of the 
first great epoch of Maya culture. 

Comalcalco and Ocosingo both re- 
semble Palenque in respect to art and 
architecture. Por the most part the 
highland ruins of Guatemala and the 
state of Chiapas are subsequent to the 
great period of Maya art. 

The stage of the second great age of 
Maya civilization shifts to northern 
Yucatan. As Copan furnished the key 



to the chronology of the south, so 
Chichen Itza does to that of the north. 
It was probably the first great northern 
city to be founded and the last to fall. 
The only initial series date thus far found 
in the north is from Chichen Itza. For 
the north the Author takes up seriatim 
periods instead of cities and distinguishes 
the following: (1) Period of transition; 
(2) League of Mayapan; (3) Influence 
from the Valley of Mexico; and (4) Fall 
of Mayapan to the present time. The 
second and, third periods constitute the 
second great age of Maya civilization. 

Notable achievements in architecture 
mark the period of the League of Maya- 
pan. Most of the structures at Uxmal, 
Labna, Kabah, Sayil, Hochob, and 
Chacmultun belong to this period; as 
do also the Akat'cib, Casa Colorado, 
Group of the Monjas, and the Carocol at 
Chichen Itza. Nahua influence was 
strongly felt during the next period, 
leaving its imprint especially at Chichen 
Itza, where Nahua features are promi- 
nent as in the Temple of the Initial 
Series, Castillo, Ball Court Group, and 
Group of the Columns. The architec- 
tural features mentioned by the Author 
as probably of Nahua origin include 
serpent columns and balustrades, plat- 
form mounds with colonnades, flat roofs, 
ball courts, and atlantean supports; the 
artistic and religious features comprise 
Chacmool sculptures, sun disks and the 
celestial eye type of star symbols, speech 
signs, feathered monsters in front view, 
and processional grouping of warriors 
accompanied by identifying glyphs. 

There have been numerous attempts 
to correlate Christian and Maya chro- 
nology. These have been for the most 
part based on the Books of Chilan Balam. 
The Author's concordance, which is pre- 
sented in the form of a table, may be 
briefly summed up as follows: Proto- 
historic period, 235 b. c. to 1()0 a. d. ; 



MAYA ART AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 



111 



Archaic period, 160 a. d. to 455 a. d. 
Great period, 455 a. d, to 600 a. d. 
Transition period, 600 a. d. to 960 a. d. 
League period 960 a. d. to 1195 a. d. 
Nahua period, 1195 a. d. to 1442 a. d. 
Modern period, since 1442 a. d. 

The relation of Maya to neighboring 
cultures receives interesting treatment. 
That an elaborate calendar system was 
used with comparatively little change 
from the Tarascans and Otomies on the 
north to the tribes of Nicaragua on the 
south points conclusively to ethnic affilia- 
tions throughout the region. This cal- 
endar however was invented and largely 
perfected by the Maya. Gadow points 
out that five of the animals represented 
as day signs in the Aztec calendar do not 
occur on the highlands of Mexico; it 
is therefore reasonable to suppose that 
the calendar did not originate in that 
region. On the other hand all of the 
animals connected with the calendar are 
common to the Maya country. 

Following, a resume of the chronologi- 
cal sequence of cultures in Mexico, the 
Author finds no grounds for ascribing a 
northern origin to Maya art. The 
earliest period of the north is entirely 
independent of the Maya; the middle 
period in the highlands of Mexico was 
one of low art pressure and received a 
current from the south; and only in the 
last decadent period was this current 
reversed. 

As for cultural connections outside 
of Mexico, the argument centers princi- 
pally around: (1) Pyramids and other 
features of material culture; (2) reli- 



gious ideas associated with the serpent; 
and (3) similarities in symbolism and art. 
The Author does not even "dignify by 
refutation the numerous empty theories 
of ethnic connections between Central 
America and the Old World." 

In the New World are three large but 
widely separated areas where pyramids 
are found: western Peru and Ecuador, 
Central America and Mexico, and the 
Mississippi valley and the southeastern 
part of the United States, but there is 
little to suggest interrelation. Of the 
various types of mounds in the Missis- 
sippi valley the pyramid is the only one 
that offers points of resemblance; but 
points equally striking are offered by 
the great structure at Moche, Peru, or 
even by the ruins at Tello, Chaldea; 
Central American and Mexican influence 
has likewise been invoked to account 
for the symbolism on the shell gorgets 
and copper plates from the Mississippi 
Valley; the Author would account for 
them in other ways, believing as he does 
that there are " no trustworthy evidences 
of trade relations between the Mexicans 
and Mound-builders, nor is there any 
sure indication of fundamental unity of 
culture at any time in the distant past." 

Dr. Spinden's work reflects credit 
upon his alma mater as well as the mu- 
seum he now serves. It should be wel- 
comed by the specialist for the new 
light it throws on hitherto obscure pages 
and by the layman as an up-to-date and 
conservative presentation of a subject 
that cannot fail to appeal to all lovers 
of American aboriginal art. 



Caravan traveling up a dry river bed 



THE WILD ASS OF SOMALILAND 

A STORY OF HUNTING IN DESERT AFRICA 
By Carl E. Akeley 

With photograpiis by tiie Autlior 



SCARCITY of camels was likely to 
delay our start from Berbera to 
the interior of Somaliland for 
some time, therefore it was decided to 
put in the time of waiting in hunting the 
wild ass down in Gubon country. Thus 
we traveled across the arid plain from 
Berbera through a pass in the Golis 
Range on over the volcanic rock and bar- 
ren sands to a wet spot in a dry river bed 
that would produce water for camp when 
properly coaxed. We made our wild ass 
camp thirty miles from Berbera in a 
cheerless country, rocks and sand hav- 
ing all the appearance of being freshly 
dumped in this God-forsaken place, stor- 
ing up heat from a fierce vertical sun all 
day and throwing it off at night. 

After several heart-breaking days' 
work we had secured but one specimen 
and several were needed for a group. 
One morning under guidance of natives 
who promised to take us to a country 
where they abounded, D. and I started 
out at three o'clock in the morning, with 
a couple of camels to bring back the 
skins if we got them. At about eight 
as we were crossing a sandy plain where 
here and there a dwarfed shrub or tuft 
of grass had managed to find sustenance, 



one of the gun-bearers pointed out in the 
distance an object which he declared to 
be an ass. We advanced slowly. As 
there was no cover, there was no possi- 
bility of a stalk, and the chance of a shot 
at reasonable range seemed remote, for 
we had found in our previous experience 
that the wild ass is extremely shy and 
that when once alarmed travels rapidly 
and long distances. We approached to 
within two hundred yards and had begun 
to think that it was a native's tame 
donkey and expected to see its owner 
appear in the neighborhood, when it 
became uneasy and started to bolt; but 
its curiosity brought it about for a last 
look and we took advantage of the 
opportunity and fired. It was hard hit 
apparently, but recovered and stood 
facing us. We approached closer and 
thinking it best to take no chances fired 
again — and then he merely walked 
about a little making no apparent effort 
to go away. We approached carefully. 
He showed no signs of fear and although 
"hard hit" stood stolidly until at last 
I put one hand on his withers and 
tripping him, pushed him over. I 
began to feel that if this was sport I 
should never be a sportsman. 

113 



114 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



We now discovered that our scant 

supply of water was exhausted and 

although we wished to continue the hunt 

we realized that to get farther from camp 

without water would be risky indeed. 

The guide had assured us that there 

would be plenty of opportunity to get 

water on our route but we knew that it 

was five hours back to water, the way we 

had come, and five hours without water 

in the middle of the day would mean 

torture. It is said that in that region 

thirty hours without water means death 

to the native and twelve hours is the 

white man's limit. The guide assured 

us that if we would continue on an hour 

longer we would find water. After four 

hours of hard hot marching we arrived 

at a hole in the ground where some time 

there had been water but not a drop now 

and after a little digging at the bottom 

of the hole the natives declared there was 

no hope. Our trail for the last hour had 

been under a pitiless noonday sun along 

a narrow valley shut in on either side 

by steep rocky hills, while we faced a 

veritable sand storm, a strong hot wind 

that drove the burning sand into our 

faces and hands. The dry well was the 

last straw. 

The guides said there was one more 
hole about an hour away and they would 
go and see if there was water there. 
They with the gun-bearers started out, 
while we off -saddled the mules and using 
the saddles for pillows and the saddle 
blankets to protect our faces from the 
driving sand, dozed in the scant shade of 
a leafless thorn tree. 

At four o'clock the boys returned — 
no water. I), and I received the report, 
looked at one another and returned to 
our pillows beneath the saddle blankets. 
A little later a continued prodding in the 
ribs from my gun-bearer brought me to 
attention again as he pointed out an 
approaching caravan consisting of sev- 



eral camels and a couple of natives. 
Each of the natives carried a well-filled 
goatskin from his shoulders and realiz- 
ing that these goatskins probably con- 
tained milk, I knew that our troubles 
were nearly over. I instructed the gun- 
bearer to make a bargain for part of the 
milk and covered my head again to 
escape the pelting of the sand and 
waited. 

We were both in a semi-comatose 
state and I paid no further attention to 
proceedings until I was again prodded 
by the gun-bearer who was now greatly 
excited. He pointed to the receding 
camels while he jabbered away to the 
effect that the natives would not part 
with any of the plentiful supply of milk. 
The white men might die for all they 
cared. 

When I had come to a realization of 
the situation, there seemed to be only 
one solution to the affair — a perfectly 
natural solution — precisely the same as 
if they had stood over us with their 
spears poised at our hearts. I grabbed 
my rifle and drew a bead on one of the 
departing men and called to D. to get up 
and cover the other. I waited while 
D. was getting to an understanding 
of the game and then when he was 
ready and I was about to give the word 
the natives stopped, gesticulating wildly. 
The gun-bearer who had been shouting 
to them told us not to shoot, that the 
milk would come, and it did. Milk! 
Originally milked into a dung-lined 
smoked chattie, soured and carried in a 
filthy old goatskin for hours in the hot 
sun. But it was good. I have never 
had a finer drink. 

An hour before sundown, greatly 
refreshed, we started back to camp. 
Just at dusk the shadowy forms of five 
asses dashed across our path fifty yards 
away and we heard a bullet strike as we 
took a snap at them. One began to lag 




stripes on the neck revealed by the camera 




A water hole in Somaliland. Water is obtained by digging down in the sand of a dry river bed 
to the underlying rock 

U3 



1 




THE WILD ASS OF SOMALILAND 



117 



behind as the others ran wildly away. 
The one soon stopped and we ap- 
proached, keeping him covered in case 
he attempted to bolt. As we got near he 
turned and faced us with great gentle 
eyes. Without the least sign of fear or 
anger he seemed to wonder why we had 
harmed him. 

The only wound was from a small 
bullet high in the neck, merely a flesh 
wound which would have caused him no 
serious trouble had he continued with 
the herd. We walked around him with- 
in six feet and I almost believe we could 
have put a halter on him. Certainlv it 



would have been child's play to have 
thrown a rope over his head. We 
reached camp about midnight and I 
announced that if any more wild asses 
were wanted, some one else would have 
to shoot them. I had had quite enough. 
Normally the ass is one of the wildest 
of creatures and it is difficult to explain 
the actions of these two. They appeared 
not to realize that we were the cause of 
their injuries but rather seemed to expect 
relief as we approached — and yet one 
English "sportsman " boasted of having 
killed twenty-eight. 




Young malt) wild ass. Mounted by Carl E. Akeley in Field Museum, Chicago, 
from the far African jungle, it is made to "live" for the people of America 



Thus brought 



MUSEUM NOTES 



Since the last is ue of the Journal the 
ollowing persons have been elected to 
membership in the Museum: 

Sustaining Members, Mrs. Allen S. Apgar 
and Mrs. L. W. Faber; 

Life Members, Mrs. Samuel Quincy, Mrs. 
George H. Richardson, Miss M. Eliza 
Audubon, Miss Cornelia Prime and 
Messrs. D. Everett Waid and Norton 
Perkins; 

Annual Members, Mrs. Nicholas Biddle, 
Mrs. George P. Black, Mrs. Lloyd Bryce, 
Mrs. Elmer E. Cooley, Mrs. Evelyn A. 
Cregin, Mrs. William K. Draper, Mme. 
F. G. Fara Forni, Mrs. H. Hirsch, Mrs. 
Charles E. O'Hara, Mrs. Leonie M. Scott, 
Mrs. J. Spencer Turner, Miss Clara J. 
Benedict, Miss Gertrude Parsons, Dr. 
Sarah Belcher Hardy, Dr. Harris Ken- 
nedy, Dr. Charles H. Peck, Dr. John B. 
Walker, Capt. C.P. Radclyffe Dugmore 
and Messrs. John F. Archbold, George P. 
Black, Joseph A. Blake, Jr., Edward 
Born, Charles Hilton Brown, George J. 
Chambers, Frederic A. Dallett, Arthur 
DuBois, Frederick S. Duncan, Thomas F. 
GiLROY, Jr., E. Llewellyn Harper, Albert 
Herter, Frederic C. Mills, Louis M. 
Moms, F. Palmer Page, F. Louis Palmieri, 
Robert Pariser, Ira A. Place, Orlando 
B. Potter, R. Burnside Potter, John 
QuiNN, H. Sandhagen, Bernard Schutz and 
Adolph Schwob. 

Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn de- 
livered the Hitchcock Lectures at the Uni- 
versity of California on "Men of the Old 
Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and 
Art." The five lectures occupied successive 
afternoons from February 16 to 20. 

In the course of his journey through Cali- 
fornia, Professor Osborn revisited the famous 
deposits of Rancho La Brea, where collections 
are being made on a very large scale for the 
Museum of History, Science and Art of Los 
Angeles, under the supervision of Director 
Frank S. Daggett, and with the cooperation of 
Messrs. Merriam, Fisher and Miller. A com- 
plete series of mounted specimens, represent- 
ing this entire fauna, will undoubtedly be 
secured for the Los Angeles Museum. At 
the same time the much-heralded discoveries 
of human remains at Rancho La Brea were 
made, and the conditions of the discoveries 

118 



were carefully studied by Professor Osborn 
and Professor John C. Merriam of the Uni- 
versity of California. The results will be 
published in due time by Director Daggett 
and Professor Merriam. 

The Hitchcock Lectures on "Men of 
the Old Stone Age" will be repeated at 
Columbia University on successive after- 
noons, April 13 to 17, Havemeyer Hall, at 
4:15. The subjects are as follows: 

I — The Origin of Man 
II — The Three Oldest Races 
III — The Neanderthal Race 

IV — Culture and Appearance of the Cro- 

Magnon Race 

V — Art of the Cro-Magnon Race 

These lectures will be published in the 
autumn by Scribner's under the same title. 

The Congo Expedition under Messrs. 
Herbert Lang and James Chapin, which in 
cooperation with the Belgian Government 
has been carrying on active field work in 
central Africa for the past four years, is now 
devoting its entire attention to the shipment 
of its collections. A letter written by Mr. 
Chapin at Avakubi on January 12 states 
"that the task of transporting to Stanleyville 
the collections deposited at Avakubi has been 
completed and that fifty loads, as well, of 
those from Medje have likewise been for- 
warded to Stanleyville, where all our cara- 
vans are reported to have arrived without 
the slightest mishap. To insure the greatest 
security, each was accompanied by one of our 
native assistants. The recruitment of por- 
ters here offers considerable difficulty, as this 
post is on the main road between Stanleyville 
and the Uganda frontier and the needs of the 
station itself are therefore great; but the 
State officials have always assisted us in the 
most cordial manner and the work has pro- 
gressed steadily and successfully. Up to the 
present date 637 porters have been sent off, 
as well as nine large canoes, the contents of 
which would represent loads for at least 
180 men, by way of the Aruwimi River." 

It is expected that the expedition will reach 
New York early in the summer. Neither Mr. 
Lang nor Mr. Chapin has been ill one day 
during a four years' sojourn in the tropics and 
they have gathered together probably the most 
extensive and valuable collection of the Congo 



MUSEUM NOTES 



119 



fauna ever assembled. When added to what 
the Museum already possesses through earlier 
expeditions to Africa, the African collections 
will no longer need large additions and field 
work in Africa will be discontinued for the 
present. 

Through the generosity of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington, the library of the 
American Museum now possesses a complete 
set of Carnegie Institution publications num- 
bering two hundred volumes. The subjects 
include archaeology, astronomy, botany, 
economics, engineering, geology, history, 
literature, mathematics, medicine and zool- 
ogy. 

Mr. Paul J. Rainey has presented to the 
Museum forty-five mammals from Africa, in- 
cluding twelve lions, adult and young. One 
of the lions, an old black male, is an unusually 
fine specimen, distinguished by the excep- 
tional black color and by the size of the mane 
which grew far back on the body. This is 
probably the finest specimen of a wild lion in 
existence. It will be used as a leader for the 
lion group for the proposed African hall and 
completes the series of specimens for that 
group. 

The Museum has purchased from Dr. E. 
Gaffron, Berlin, his entire collection of pre- 
historic objects from the cemetery in Nasca, 
Peru. The collection consists of some four 
hundred beautifully decorated pottery vessels 
and several hundred other objects, and was 
made for Dr. Gaffron in 1907 by Mr. F. W. 
Vollmann, through whom the purchase has 
been accomplished. 

Some of the most interesting of the casts 
from the Otto Finsch collection on exhibition 
in the South Sea Island hall have been in- 
stalled in the archaeological hall to illustrate 
important racial types of the natives of the 
South Sea Islands. The races shown are 
Tasmanian, Papuan, Melanesian and Malay. 
Among the casts the Tasmanian is of the 
greatest importance as there is no longer a 
living representative of the race, the last 
Tasmanian having died in 1876. The Ameri- 
can Museum cast is from the original in the 
Sydney Museum, Australia. 

The Museum has acquired from the estate 
of the late Edwin E. Howell of Washington, 
a well known collector and dealer along the 
lines of several natural history subjects, the 



entire collection of meteorites which belonged 
to his establishment at the time of his death. 
The collection consists of representatives of 
fifty-four falls and finds, aggregating about 
one hundred kilometers in weight and con- 
taining several desirable additions to the Mu- 
seum's series. It includes two which have 
not been heretofore represented, namely the 
Ainsworth and Williamstown irons. This 
acquisition was made possible through the 
generosity of Mr. J. P. Morgan. 

Mr. Amos One Road, or to call him by 
his real Indian name. Jingling Cloud, proved 
an interesting and interested visitor at the 
Museum. This young Wahpeton Sioux is in 
the city studying in the Bible Teachers' 
Training School. Although only twenty-six 
years of age he has a surprising amount of 
knowledge concerning the customs of the 
Eastern Dakotas. Accordingly Mr. Alanson 
Skinner and Dr. Robert H. Lowie found it 
profitable to take down from his dictation 
notes on many subjects of ethnological inter- 
est such as war customs, terms of relation- 
ship, social usages and ceremonials. 

The department of ornithology has re- 
cently received an unusually rich collection 
of birds from Mr. W. B. Richardson, who has 
been collecting birds and mammals in Ecua- 
dor for the Museum. The collection com- 
prises about thirteen hundred specimens 
representing fully three hundred and seventy 
species, many of which are new to the Mu- 
seum collection. 

A number of new exhibits dealing with 
insect-borne diseases have been installed in 
the hall of public health. These include 
first, a series of insect-carriers of disease 
mounted under magnifying glasses; second, a 
model of a pier protected against the landing 
of rats from plague-infected ships; third, a 
model of a rat-killing squad in San Francisco 
and fourth, various maps showing methods of 
drainage for the prevention of malaria. 
Specimens of ticks and tsetse flies which carry 
disease have been furnished for this exhibit 
by the British Museum and a series of Cali- 
fornia ground squirrels (carriers of the plague 
bacillus) have been presented by the United 
States Public Health Service. 



Dr. C.-E. a. Winslow is engaged in an 
investigation of sanitary conditions for the 
Home Office of the Metropolitan Life Insur- 



m 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ance Company and has also been appointed 
advisory expert in public health education 
in the New York State Health Department, 
which is being organized by Dr. Hermann M. 
Biggs, the new Commissioner. 

Some one hundred and thirty specimens of 
minerals were added to the mineral collection 
in the American Museum during the year 
1913. In preponderant measure it was the 
Bruce fund that made this generous increase 
possible. Among the additions the following 
are conspicuous: a wonderfully crystallized 
surface of hopeite (phosphate of zinc) from 
South Africa, a beautifully crystallized plate 
of gold from Oregon, and a small series of phe- 
nomenal cuprodescloizites. Hopeites have 
seldom appeared in a collection before except 
in fragments and with very small crystals. 
The splendid surface of crystals of the new 
specimen arrests attention. South Africa 
and Madagascar are giving to the mineral 
collectors of the world some great surprises. 
Hardly less remarkable however is the new 
find in Bisbee, Arizona, of cuprodescloizite. 
Almost all collectors will recall that speci- 
mens of this mineral have hitherto been poor 
and scarcely recognizable. This new find 
reveals it in dark velvet surfaces composed 
o Iminute needles of extreme beauty. 

There has been placed on exhibition in the 
hall of fishes, a model of one of the Atlantic 
flying fishes which is the first of this interest- 
ing group to be shown by the Museum. 
Flying fishes abound in the warm seas of the 
world. Their enlarged fins enable them to 
remain in the air for surprisingly long flights — 
under favorable circumstances an eighth of a 
mile or more — and in this way they doubt- 
less often escape off-shore dolphins and boni- 
tos of which they are the principal food. 

The skin of the boarfish has been mounted 
and placed on exhibition also. This is a flat 
squarish fish (Ardigonia) of a beautiful red 
color, i.s widely distributed in rather deep 
wat(!r in the tropics and belongs to a small 
family with no near allies, the correct classi- 
fication of which has always been a puzzle to 
naturalists. 

The Museum has come into the possession 
of a skeleton of the pygmy right whale Neo- 
baloena marginata This species is exceed- 
ingly rare and is found only in the waters 
about New Zealand. It presents characters 



common to both right whales and fin whales, 
with most extraordinary individual peculiari- 
ties. These relate chiefly to the ribs which 
are more numerous than in other whales and 
are flat strips of bone seven or eight inches 
in breadth. It is also interesting because of 
the small number of lumbar vertebrae. This 
whale is without doubt one of the most 
important living cetaceans. 

Professor Dollo recently read a paper in 
London in which he expressed the view that 
Neobaloena marginata presents an extraor- 
dinary case of convergence and that while 
'•esembling the right whale in many super- 
ficial ways it still is closely allied to the fin 
whales. Whether or not upon further study 
of the species Professor Dollo's views wiU be 
sustained remains to be seen. 

The department of geology has received 
from Mr. D. M. Barringer of Philadelphia, 
through the courtesy of Princeton University, 
the loan of an important exhibit illustrating 
the surface features, structure and theory of 
origin of Meteor Crater in Arizona. Meteor • 
Crater is the name now applied to the hill and 
depression in Arizona which formerly went 
by the name of Coon Butte. The locality 
is about ten miles southwest of Canon Diablo, 
a station on the Santa F6 Railroad. 

The investigations of Mr. Barringer and 
others have led to the increasing adoption of 
the theory that this crater-like depression in 
the plateau was formed by the impact of a 
large mass or assemblage of masses of meteor- 
itic iron. The depression is about 4200 feet 
in diameter and its present bottom is 570 
feet below the highest point of its rim or about 
450 feet below the surface of the plateau. 
Explorations made by the diamond drill show 
that the bolide which caused the depression 
penetrated to a depth nearly 700 feet farther. 

The exhibit consists of photographs, charts, 
records of analysis, specimens of the rock 
which was pulverized and fused by the impact 
of the meteorite, numerous fragments of the 
meteorite itself, bolls formed by the oxidation 
of portions of the iron as they lay imbedded in 
the ddbris, specimens of the undisturbed rocks 
from the vicinity of the crater and samples 
of the drill cores from the beds beneath those 
which were altered or tilted out of position 
when the meteorite struck the earth. The 
whole exhibit forms a most interesting con- 
tribution to the history of the association of 
meteorites with the earth. 



OLUME XIV 



ctf^ 



:T 



APRIL, I9I4X:* * ^ ^ ^^piVMBER 4 



THE 




-^SlTY OF TOV^'^^ 



AMERICAN MUSEUM 
JOURNAL 




EE TO MEMBERS 



TWENTY CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

President 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. P. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor op the City of New York 
William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York 
Cabot Ward, President of the Department of Parks 
George F. Baker Henry C. Frick Seth Low 

Albert S. Bickmore Madison Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Archer M. Huntington John B. Trevor 

R. Fulton Cutting Arthur Curtiss James Felix M. Warburg 

Thomas DeWitt Cuyler Walter B. James George W. Wickersham 

James Douglas A, D. Juilliard 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 

Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



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The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
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Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public 
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Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
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The Mitla Restaurant in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open 
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room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple 
ruins at Mitla, Mexico. 



nl 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV APRIL, 1914 Number 4 



CONTENTS 

Cover, African Lion Group 

Photograph of the model by A. Phimister Proctor for a lion group to be installed in 
the new African Hall planned by Carl E. Akeley 

Frontispiece, Portrait 

Professor Albert S. Bickmore, Trustee of the American Museum 

The American Beaver Frederic A. Lucas 123 

A description of the new beaver group in the American Museum and a discussion on 
beavers in general 

With illustrations from photographs of the finished group and of the site in Colorado 
where preliminary studies for the group were made, as also illustrations of the beaver 
historically considered 

The Broom Fossil Reptile Collection Henry Fairfield Osborn 137 

Further Observations on South African Fossil Reptiles Robert Broom 139 

Resolutions to Professor Albert S. Bickmore on the Occasion of his Seventy- 
fifth Birthday 144 

A Letter from Theodore Roosevelt, Patron of the Museum's South American 
Field Work 145 

Bandelier — Pioneer Student of Ancient American Races. . , .Clark Wissler 147 

What One Village is Doing for the Birds Ernest Harold Baynes 149 

With many illustrations from photographs taken at Meriden, New Hampshire, by 
Louise Birt Baynes and Ernest Harold Baynes 

The Charles S. Mason Collection Alanson Skinner 157 

Description and illustration of an archaeological collection from Tennessee presented 
to the Museum by Mr. J. P. Morgan 

Plea for Haste in Making Documentary Records of the American Indian 

Edward S. Curtis 163 

Museum Notes 166 



Mary Cynthia Dickerson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 
1907, at the Post-Offlce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal. 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is se nt free to all members of the Museum. 




PROFESSOR ALBERT S. BICKMORE 



— " Resolutions to Professor Blckmore 
on tho Occasion of his Seventy flftiv 
Birthday," page 144 



The American Museum Journal 



/T. ^ 



Volume XIV 



APRIL, 1914 



Number 4 



THE AMERICAN BEAVER 

THE NEW BEAVER GROUP IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 
AND BEAVERS IN GENERAL 

By Frederic A. Lucas 



IT is not without diffidence that we 
announce the completion of a beaver 
group, for fear lest our critical 
•friends should ask why it is that such an 
interesting and important animal was 
not long ago represented in an institu- 
tion bearing the name of the American 
Museum of Natural History. For the 
beaver is one of the most characteristic, 
most interesting and most widely dis- 
tributed of North American mammals 
and time was when it was the most 
important. As Merriam writes in the 
Mammals of the Adirondacks: "No ani- 
mal has figured more prominently in the 
affairs of any nation than has the beaver 
in the early history of the New World. 
Its influence on the exploration, coloniza- 
tion and settlement of this country was 
very great. The trade in its peltries 
proved a source of competition and 
strife, not only among the local mer- 
chants, but also among the several col- 
onies, disputes over the boundaries hav- 
ing frequently arisen from this cause 
alone." And if it is not endowed with 
the almost human skill and intelligence 
we were brought up to believe that it 
possessed, its keen instincts and engineer- 
ing ability may well excite our admira- 
tion and respect. 

The former importance of the beaver 
was due to its use in the manufacture 
of the fashionable, expensive and cum- 
brous beave^ hat, a species among hats 



almost as extinct as the great auk among 
birds, and like it known to the present 
generation mainly from specimens pre- 
served in museums. A variety however 
still survives in Wales, which was also the 
last abiding place of the beaver in Bri- 
tain. In one of its many forms it is seen 
in the familiar portrait of Pocahontas, 
and it will probably survive for genera- 
tions to come in the cartoonists' " Uncle 
Sam," whose dress would be incomplete 
without the bell-crowned beaver hat. 

It is just possible that in days gone by 
the beaver hat may have been worn for 
other reasons than simply to keep the 
head warm. Almost every natural pro- 
duct was supposed to be endowed with 
some malign or beneficent property and 
the beaver hat was guaranteed to cure 
deafness and stimulate the memory. 

Trade in beaver skins began early, 
almost with the founding of the first 
colonies. In 1624 the Dutch shipped 
four hundred skins from New Amster- 
dam; by 1635 the number had increased 
to nearly fifteen thousand — 14,981, to be 
exact, and the beaver was deemed of 
sufficient importance to be adopted as 
the seal of the colony. Albany — Fort 
Orange it was in those days — was the 
headquarters of the Dutch fur trade, 
and from there it went to the French at 
Montreal, only somewhat later to pass 
to the English. 

An interesting feature of the early 

123 



124 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



trade is that for hat-making, old and 
^v'orn beaver skins were preferred to 
new and in 1636 Bradford in his History 
•of Plymouth Plantation notes that coat 
beavers, as they were termed, brought 
twenty to twenty-four shillings the 
pound, others selling for fifteen to six- 
teen shillings the skin. As Adrian van 
der Donck wrote, "unless the beaver 
has been worn, and is greasy and dirty, 
it will not felt properly"; so whenever 
possible, the Indians were wheedled or 
cozened out of their robes and these 
went into the making of hats. The hats 



of those days were valuable and cherished 
possessions, of sufficient importance and 
endurance to be handed down by will 
from father to son. Also they could be 
rented by the year for about fifteen 
dollars by those who could not afford to 
purchase outright. All of which shows 
that Dame Fashion was not so fickle in 
those days as now. 

The English colonist did not neglect 
the beaver. The "Fortune," the first 
ship to visit Plymouth, took back in 
1621 two hogsheads of beaver and other 
pelts, and in 1634 Winslow sent twenty 




Ciijiyriijlit, 1!J14, Uij III!' ,\ iitioiKtI. (iciJi/nt ii/i ic Sociflij 

The beaver hat still survives In Wales as part of the national costume. Photograph reproduced] 
through the courtesy of the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. 



THE AMERICAN BEAVER 



125 



hogsheads, the shipments up to this 
time having a total value of about 
ten thousand dollars. Thus the beaver 
seems to have been for a time the chief 
source of revenue of the Plymouth col- 
ony, although it is evident from the rec- 
ords that many of the skins must have 
come from Maine. But in New England, 
outside of Maine, the beaver was not 
abundant, and by 1645 the trade in the 
skins was practically at an end in that sec- 
tion. As any part of the country became 
settled the trade in beaver skins in- 
creased, and as fast as the beaver was 
exterminated, it became necessary to go 
farther and farther into the interior in 
search of it. Here is where the Hudson's 
Bay Company played the leading role, 
and by virtue of its efficient organization 
captured from the French and Dutch the 
fur trade that it has held even to the 
present day. A few figures will suffice 
to indicate the number 
of beavers that have 
been, and still are, used 
in trade. In 1854 the 
Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany disposed of no 
less than 509,240 skins, 
although this doubtless 
represents the accumu- 
lation of several years. 
In 1891 the Company 
handled 63,419 skins 
ranging in price, ac- 
cording to size and 
quality, from five to 
sixty -nine shillings 
apiece, and even so re- 
cently as 1903, 80,000 
skins were sold in Lon- 
don, although 16,504 
were sold by parties 
other than the Hud- 
son's Bay Company. 
The profits on some of 

, Grandfather's hat, 1830. 

these skins must have Essex institute, Salem 



been fairly good, especially on the ones 
taken in exchange for trade muskets. 
The price of one of these flintlock guns 
was enough beaver skins pilefl about the 
gun standing on end to reach from floor to 
muzzle. The gun too, apparently was 
subject to unexpected growth, and for a 
year or two would be about six inches 
longer than the would-be-purchaser had 
calculated. Transactions such as this 
were the exception however, and the list 
price for a beaver skin was ten shillings. 

The fur trade nevertheless has not been 
all profit, and there have been times 
when the market was glutted and prices 
low. Such a time came in 1700, when 
there was a large stock of skins on hand, 
and just as in our day, planters have 
burned tobacco in the effort to keep up 
prices, so three-quarters of the skins on 
hand were burned at Montreal. 

The principal use of these skins was, 




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The beavers have brought a supply of tree trunks and boughs to repair the break in the dam an 1 
thus save the pond 



as previously noted, for the making of 
hats, and as these hats were worn in 
ever increasing numbers from 1100 on- 
wards until the invention of the silk hat, 
it seems quite probable that the beaver 
hat was the cause of the practical ex- 
termination of the beaver in Europe. 

About 1840 as the number of beavers 
was getting low and the price for their 
skins correspondingly high, the big South 
American water rat, or coypu, known to 
the trade as " nutria," came to their aid. 
The fur of these animals felted just as 
well and cost much less, and they were 
imported by thousands. The silk hat 



however, was their real salvation; this, 
the hall mark of the well-dressed man, 
is said to have reached Paris about 1825, 
although it was known in Florence at 
least fifty years earlier. 

The beavers gained a new lease of 
life from the introduction of the silk hat. 
It rapidly came into vogue and the price 
of beaver skins declined to a point where 
trapping was no longer profitable, and 
for a time the animal increased and 
multiplied. The drop in price may be 
realized by saying that in 1869 skins 
were offered by the bale as low as twenty- 
five cents apiece. 

127 




This old beaver house has been used for many years. It is thirty-five feet in diameter and is so 
overgrown with grass and willows as to resemble a small island. It is one of the many structures of 
various ages and types of beaver architecture found in the string of ponds shown on the following 
page 




Young beavers at home. Part of the new group recently con- 
structed in the American Museum 



Then came the use of 
phicked beaver for furs 
and this demand of 
fashion has kept down 
the number of beavers 
ever since. If we Ameri- 
cans were not a wasteful, 
improvident, lawless na- 
tion, there would be little 
trouble in supplying all 
the beaver skins neces- 
sary, and there is small 
doubt that this will 
eventually be done. 
With proper restrictions 



128 



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THE AMERICAN BEAVER 



131 



the natural increase of a beaver colony 
would yield a stated number of skins 
annually, the chief care necessary being 
to plant trees to provide a food supply. 
How readily this could be done is shown 
by the history of the beaver in the State 
of New York, where they once abounded 
and where in spite of 
persistent trapping they 
seem not to have been 
wholly exterminated, al- 
though in 1894 Mr. Rad- 
ford finds that not more 
than ten were left in the 
Adirondack region. 

In 1904 the State of 
New York appropriated 
five hundred dollars for 
the reintroduction of 
beaver and with this 
and subsequent appropri- 
ations and the aid of pri- 
vate contributions some 
thirty-four animals were 
turned loose. By 1908 
there were about one 
hundred and fifty ani- 
mals in the Adirondacks 
and since then they have 
not only increased but 
spread to other localities, 
a few even being found 
in northern New Jersey, 
although these may have 
been quietly introduced. 

The beaver seems 
formerly to have been 
found throughout the 
greater part of North 
America, outside the 
tropics, or wherever food 
and natural conditions 
were favorable. 

Many places, including 
several counties, have 
beer named from the 
former occurrence of 



beaver and there are no less than fifty 
post-offices in the United States and one 
hundred lakes and streams thus desig- 
nated besides innumerable locally known 
beaver ponds and beaver dams. It is 
quite possible that Beaver Dam Pond 
near Manomet, Plymouth, may have 




T'hntn,,rn!>ii by Mr. C. H. Simpson 
Beaver Dam, Maskinonge, Province of Quebec 




Photograph by Mr. 
Beaver hut on the Maine border 



W. 



H. Balch 



THE AMERICAN BEAVER 



133 



furnished some of the beaver skins 
shipped on the "Fortune," but it has 
recently been converted into a cranberry 
bog and now not even a muskrat is to 
be found there. 

In some places, notably in England, the 
beaver is commemorated by names that 
have long lost their significance, although 
in many instances they retain more of 
their original spelling than one might at 
first imagine. Such are, Beverege, Be- 
vere Island, Beverecote and Beverly, the 
last not being named in honor of Sir 
John Beverly, but being an evolution of 
"Before leag" or "Beaver Place." 

It is necessary to say only a few words 
about the 



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habits and 
habitations 
of the bea- 
ver, as these 
are dwelt on 
at length in 
every work 
on natural 
history.! The 
beaver is shy 
and retiring 
in his habits, 
as well as 
nocturnal, 

and this combination of characters, 
although conducive to longevity in a 
state of nature, is not a success in a 
zoological garden. In order to see the 
beaver at all he must be kept in a 
cage, where he not unnaturally sulks 

» For the benefit of those who wish to pursue 
the subject further, a list of the more important or 
more interesting books and papers is appended: 

The American Beaver and His Works, by Lewis 
H. Morgan. 

Castorologia : or. The History and Traditions of 
the Canadian Beaver, by Horace T. Martin, 
F. Z. S. 

In Beaver World, by Enos A. Mills. 

The Story of the Beaver, by William Daven- 
port Hulbert. 

Haunts of the Beaver, by A. R. Dugmore. 
Everybody's Magazine, December, 1901. 

Beaver in the Adirondacks, by H. V. Radford. 



The earliest picture of the beaver, 1684 



and tries to show as little of himself as 
possible. 

The structures built by the beaver 
vary somewhat with his surroundings 
and his house may either stand in 
moderately deep water, rest against the 
bank of a river, or as in the Museum 
group, be erected on the edge of a pond. 
While usually built of sticks from which 
the bark has been removed for food, it 
may, as in some northern streams where 
food and building material are abundant, 
be constructed of unpeeled sticks. In 
any case, the house chamber is above 
water and here the beavers pass the 
winter more or less inactively, and here 

the young, 
numbering 
from two to 
five, are born 
in May. 

Those who 
know the 
animal best 
look upon 
the canals 
constructed 
for the trans- 
portation of 
food supplies 
as the most 
remarkable of "all his undertakings. 
Man, with the aid of steam and elec- 
tricity excavates the Suez and Panama 
Canals, but the beaver, a creature 
weighing on an average thirty or forty 
pounds, with no tools except teeth and 
paws, digs trenches 150 to 750 feet long 
and a yard wide and deep. Further 
than this, in cases where the ground 
slopes rapidly, the beaver will erect dam 
after dam, and dig canal after canal 
until by a succession of steplike levels, 
the needed food is obtained. 

The dams also vary and may con- 
sist mainly of earth, or of sticks packed 
with earth. As in the dam shown 



134 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



in the group, grass and willows often 
take root and convert the dam into a 
wooded island. The dams, which serve 
to protect the houses by surrounding 
them with water, are chiefly for pur- 
poses of transportation and enable the 
animals to bring to their houses the 
branches whose bark serves as food. 
Mills styles the beaver "the original 
conservationist" and calls attention to 
the part he and his dams have played 
in agriculture by converting streams 
into marshes and subsequently into 
broad flat meadows. Here the palse- 
ontologist should join the farmer in a 
vote of thanks, for some of the best 
preserved skeletons of mastodons (like 
that in the Museum of the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences) have been 



found imbedded in the mud of old-time 
beaver ponds. 

The remarkable things that beavers 
actually do in nature are nothing to what 
they do in books, and just as children 
say the brightest things their parents 
can think of, so an animal's natural 
intelligence (or that which seems to be 
intelligence) loses nothing in the telling, 
and some marvelous tales have been 
told of the beaver. The account of 
Le Beau might well excite the admira- 
tion and envy of some of our more 
modern writers. The company of 
beavers uniting to fell the large tree is 
a brilliant flight of fancy wherein the 
writer has been ably seconded by the 
artist. 

The most widespread fallacy, and the 




Black ash cut by bsavers near Port Kent, New York. 
characteristic marks of the beaver's teeth 



Gift of W. H. Howell. The cuttings show 




Schseffer's Farm, Newburg, where the Brooklyn mastodon was found. The site of an ancient 
beaver pond, now a fertile meadow 



most natural, is that the beaver uses his 
tail as a trowel, and also in the trans- 
portation of various materials. He 
really ought to do these things for which 
the tail seems so well adapted, but he 
doesn't. He does however, give notice 
of impending danger by striking the 
ground or water, as the case may be; 
and the slap of a beaver's tail on the 
water will resound through the quiet 
night like the crack of a rifle. 

So much for the beaver in general; a 
great deal more might be said about 
him, and has been said in a number of 
books, besides numberless papers, popu- 
lar and otherwise. 

As might be expected, any animal that 
covers almost the length and breadth of 
a continent is subject to 
variation in parts of its 
range, and although ten- 
dency to vary is in a meas- 
ure checked by great simi- 
larity in habitat and 
habits, there is 
enough to divide the 
beaver into four or 
five geographic races 
or subspecies. That 
shown in our group 




(A^^tODAlA^O 



The Arms of New Amsterdam 



is the Sonoran beaver. The specimens 
with the permission of the Department 
of Game and Fish of Colorado, were 
taken by Mr. Albert E. Butler in the sum- 
mer of 1913 and so do not show the ani- 
mals at their best as regards coat, 
although it is necessary to show them at 
this time of year in order to include the 
young and have the surroundings. When 
capturing the beaver, Mr. Butler also 
took photographs and gathered the trees, 
house and foliage used in the group. 

The background of the group, which 
incidentally portrays a dam and canal, 
is by Mr. Hobart Nichols, whose skilled 
brush has provided appropriate settings 
not only for many of the habitat groups 
of birds but also for the equally beautiful 
groups of amphibians. The 
locality is a valley in Estes 
Park, Colorado, looking 
from the slope of Mount 
Meeker toward Lily Moun- 
tain . Here years 
ago, the busy beav- 
ers dammed the lit- 
tle stream convert- 
ing the valley into a 
series of ponds and 
swamps. 

135 




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® o 



THE BROOM FOSSIL REPTILE COLLECTION 

By Henry Fairfield Osborn 



THE land life of Permian times in 
South Africa brought to the 
Museum by Dr. Robert Broom 
and now acquired as a permanent pos- 
session of the Museum, has interest 
because of its vast antiquity and the 
relationship which certain parts of this 
life bear to the ancestry of the mammals, 
the group of vertebrates to which man 
belongs. These strange and archaic 
forms of amphibians and reptiles, which 
represent for the most part orders now 
extinct, will be placed beside those of our 
own American Permian from Texas 
and New Mexico, acquired in the Cope 
Collection many years ago through the 
gift of Morris K. Jesup. 

The relationship between the Ameri- 
can and African life has long been the 
subject of debate among palseontologists, 
so that the opportunity afforded by the 
acquisition of the Broom Collection to 
bring side by side these extraordinary 
animals from widely separated parts of 
the most ancient world is an event of real 
importance in palaeontology. We shall 
now see the archaic and monstrous forms 
of amphibians and reptiles of Permian 
Africa arranged with those of Permian 
Texas, showing the striking series of re- 
semblances and contrasts through which 
perhaps the question of relationship 
may be solved. Dr. Broom thinks he 
has detected some signs of affinity, 
but in general the forms outwardly seem 
very different. 

These strange animals of the Permian 
continents first represent the climax of 
development of the amphibian kingdom, 
of which the puny modern representa- 
tives are the frogs, toads and sala- 



manders. They are the first trials of 
nature in progression on land. The 
Texan reptiles continued to crawl close 
to the ground but in South Africa we find 
that in many of the groups through a 
powerful development of the limbs the 
body is raised well off the ground — a 
distinct advantage which gave the start 
that finally resulted in the evolution of 
the running mammals. 

There are only three places in the 
world where Permian land life has left 
any records: South Africa, Texas and 
New Mexico, and the borders of the 
Dvina River in Russia. Strangely 
enough the Russian life in Permian 
times was closely related to that of 
South Africa in the common presence of 
many similar forms. It is true that here 
and there in South America and in Great 
Britain stragglers of the strange Permian 
world are found, but both South Africa 
and Texas present a wealth of forms. 

The Broom Collection adds fifty to 
sixty types to the fifty-two types of 
Permian reptiles already in the American 
Museum. It is so rich in types that it 
rivals the British Museum collection, 
while from a spectacular point of view 
it surpasses that collection as well as the 
collection in the Cape Town Museum, for 
apart from its types it has an unusually 
large number of representative specimens 
and these in unusually perfect condition. 
It contains all the known specimens 
except one of the group of primitive 
mammal-like reptiles called the Dromo- 
saurians; four skeletons of large Dino- 
cephalians, a group which is known in 
other great museums only by three 
skulls in the Cape Town Museum and by 

137 



138 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



two skulls and a number of bones in the 
British Museum; five skeletons of Di- 
cynodon, the only other known skele- 
tons being two in the British Museum; 
and one skeleton of Endothiodon with 
seven additional skulls, a genus repre- 
sented in the Cape Town Museum by a 
very imperfect skeleton and a few frag- 
ments and about equally in the British 
Museum. It contains also some very 
fine specimens of Cynodont skulls and 
two perfect Therocephalian skulls be- 
sides many imperfect ones, the Cape 
Town Museum having but two as per- 
fect and the British Museum only one 
of small size. 

Certain of the South African skeletons 
of the collection have been mounted 



under the direction of Dr. Broom, who 
has - spent several months in the 
American Museum of Natural History 
preparing this collection for exhibition. 
Some are of massive size and gigantic 
proportions, others are diminutive, 
and in view of the fact that all 
were destined to extinction, we are 
reminded of the famous lines of 
Lucretius: 

Hence , doubtless , earth prodigious forms 
at first 

Gendered, of face and members most gro- 
tesque; 

many a tribe has sunk supprest 

Powerless its kind to gender. For whate'er 
Feeds on the living ether, craft or speed. 
Or courage stern, from age to age preserves 
In ranks uninjured. . ." 




An almost perfect skull of a large Parelasaurus, Pareiasaurus whaiisi Uroom, which lived some 
17,000.000 years ago. The lower jaws are larger than in most species and have underneath two peculiar 
projections, the posterior of which resembles a small horn which passes inward. Both horns are broken 
off from the jaw on the left side. [One-fourth natural size] 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOUTH 
AFRICAN FOSSIL REPTILES 



By Robert Broom 



M 



ANY of the specimens in the 
Broom Collection of South 
African fossil reptiles are of 
special importance to the student inves- 
tigating the deep problems of evolution 
and comparative anatomy, but others 
are of the greatest interest to the general 
public as they throw 
much light on the past 
life of the world and on 
the struggles of the ani- 
mals for existence in these 
remote ages. The animal 
life of the Karroo forma- 
tion will be better under- 
stood by considering the 
principal types living at 
three different periods. 

The first fauna which 
we consider may be called 
the Pareiasaurus fauna 
and it lived about seven- 
teen million years ago. 
The huge Pareiasaurus 
was a heavily-built slow- 
moving animal rather 
larger than a half-grown 
hippopotamus and prob- 
ably as sluggish in its 
movements as the large 
tortoises of the Galapa- 
gos Islands. Certainly it 
was a plant-eating ani- 
mal and being compara- 
tively helpless against its 
carnivorous enemies it 
probably protected itself 
by digging into the sandy 
and muddy banks after 
the manner of the Aus- 
tralian porcupine ant- 
eater. This we infer 



from the fact that it had powerful dig- 
ging claws on the front toes and that the 
back was protected by a number of bony 
plates. 

Along with Pareiasaurus there was 
another group of plant-eating animals, 
some of them even larger than Pareia- 




Shoulder girdles and front limbs of a very large Dinocepha- 
lian, Tapinocephalus atherstonei Owen, from South Africa, now in the 
possession of the American Museum 

139 



140 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



saurus. These form the group of the 
DinocephaHans and of these there are a 
number of nearly complete skeletons in 
the Broom Collection — the only dino- 
cephalian skeletons at present known. 
Moschops is a heavily-built form with 
powerful walking limbs and relatively 
small head. Another much larger form 
called Tapinocephalus is represented by 
the fore limbs and the shoulder girdles. 
It might be supposed that Tapinocepha- 
lus and Pareiasaurus were much too 
large to have been troubled with enemies 



In the shales at Beaufort West we have 
representatives of the fauna that proba- 
bly lived a quarter of a million years later 
than Pareiasaurus. The large herbi- 
vores wie now meet with are the Endo- 
thiodons [illustrated in the December, 
1913, Journal], and with them are 
abundant representatives of the small 
Dicynodons. Like Pareiasaurus these 
later forms are heavily-built slow-moving 
forms which possibly for protection also 
dug their way into the muddy banks. 
They fed on the vegetation that flour- 




Front view of the skulls, Endothiodon uniseries Owen and Dicynodon moschops Broom, to show the 
difference in the mode of closing of the beaks 



but we have reason to believe that like 
most later herbivorous forms there were 
carnivores that preyed upon them. 
They are at present however very im- 
perfectly known. One called Titano- 
suchvs is known by part of the jaws and 
was certainly large enough to have killed 
and devoured even the mighty Pareia- 
saurus and Tapinocephalus. With these 
giant forms there are a number of 
small carnivores, and the beginnings of 
the tortoise-beaked mammal-like reptiles 
which are better known in the later beds. 



ished at the sides of the rivers and on the 
inundated plains. Dicynodon resembled 
Endothiodon in many ways but differed 
in having in the male a pair of tusks. 
The small Dicynodons must have been 
very abundant as in many places num- 
erous skulls can be picked up but curi- 
ously enough complete skeletons are rare. 
Often two or three skulls are found to- 
gether in the shale without any other 
bones of the skeleton being near and 
isolated limb bones and vertebrae may 
be picked up in the deposit. The reason 



for this, is probably that 
the dead animals were 
devoured by small car- 
nivores and the bones 
scattered about by 
them. In Australia we 
find the same thing 
happening to-day. The 
carcass of any sheep is 
almost certain to have 
its bones scattered by 
the native cats which 
often drag portions of 
the animal for long dis- 
tances to their dens. 

The carnivorous rep- 
tiles that fed on the large Endothiodons 
were almost certainly large wo! Hike rep- 
tiles called Scymnognathus |See figure of 
skull in December Journal]. The ene- 
mies of the smaller Dicynodons were 
carnivorous reptiles called Mlurosaurus 
belonging to the same group as Scymnog- 
nathus. In the collection besides speci- 
mens of the large Endothiodons and the 
large carnivorous reptiles, there are a 
number of small dicynodon skeletons 
from the Beaufort West region. The 
two in the illustrations together with a 




Perfect skull 
Broom, with the 
the lack of a tusk 



of a broad-headed Dicynodon, Dicynodon moschops 
lower jaw restored. This is a female as is shown by 



third not figured show very well the pro- 
portions of this remarkable reptilian type 
and are the first skeletons of Dicynodon 
that have ever been mounted. 

At New Bethesda in Cape Colony we 
have representatives of a fauna that lived 
still another quarter or half million 
years later. The large Endothiodons 
are now extinct, and their place is taken 
by moderately large Dicynodons. A 
few small Pareiasaurians still survive 
which differ from the earlier larger types 
in having the back and sides completely 




Nearly complete skeleton of a small species of Dicynodon, Dicynodon psittacops Broom, from Beau- 
fort West. The bones of the limbs and girdles are as found [About one-third natural size] 

141 



142 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



•covered by bony plates. The carnivores 
are for the most part very similar to 
those in earlier beds and here again we 
may feel certain that they killed the 
Dicynodons and scattered their bones. 
Of the skeleton of one of the larger Dicy- 



the front limb bones were also some yards 
away, as if the carnivore which killed the 
Dicynodon had dragged the head some 
distance away and after having devoured 
all it wished of this part had returned to 
the carcass and dragged off the fore 




Dicynodon planus, from Beaufort West. Nearly perfect skeleton which probably belongs to this 
species but as the skvill is rather imperfect there is some slight doubt of the determination. The skull 
is much crushed and imperfect. The limbs and girdles are restored in as nearly the walking position as. 
is practicable [^\ natural size] 



nodons shown in the illustration, the 
skull was found about ten yards from 
the posterior part of the skeleton, and 




Dicynodon laliceps. Top of the skull of a broad-headed form of 
Dicynodon. This specimen is a male and had had a pair of large 
tusks which unfortunately were broken oiT 



limbs. Contemporaneous with these 
Dicynodons and carnivores are a num- 
ber of small lizard-like animals of which 
there are representa- 
tives in the collection. 

The next fauna which 
is well known is pos- 
sibly a million years 
later than that seen at 
New Bethesda and may 
be called the Burghers- 
dorp fauna. It is char- 
acterized by the pres- 
ence of Dicynodons 
even much larger than 
those of New Bethesda 
or the Endothiodons of 
Beaufort West. The 
carnivores belong to 
the group of extreme- 
ly mammal-like forms 
called Cynodonts, of 
which there are some 
specimens in the col- 



SOUTH AFRICAN FOSSIL REPTILES 



143 



lection [See illustrations in December 
Journal]. 

The study of these various faunas of 
South Africa shows the progressive evo- 
lution from the very early mammal-like 



reptiles that preyed on the huge, slow- 
moving Pareiasaurus to the Cynodonts of 
later beds, carnivorous animals which are 
so like mammals that it is only with diffi- 
culty that they can be distinguished. 




A complete skull of the Dicynodon leontops, about one-third natural size. This is the only known 
large Dicynodon in which the tusks are perfectly preserved. Although in the specimen they are some- 
what crushed together, there is no doubt that the lower jaw passed up between the tusks. The inner 
sides have been ground down by the rubbing of the lower jaw against them. Both tusks are blunt and 
would probably be of little service as weapons of offense 



RESOLUTIONS TO PROFESSOR BICKMORE ON 
THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTY-FIFTH 

BIRTHDAY 



AT the forty-fifth annual meeting of 
the Board of Trustees of the 
American Museum of Natural 
History on February 2, 1914, the Trus- 
tees requested the President and Sec- 
retary to transmit to their colleague, 
Professor Albert S. Bickmore, the fol- 
lowing greeting on his seventy-fifth 
birthday : 

The Trustees of the American Museum 
of Natural History extend to their colleague, 
Professor Albert S. Bickmore, their most 
cordial greetings and heartiest congratula- 
tions on his seventy-fifth birthday. 

There is a deeper significance in this action 
of the Trustees than the conveyance of formal 
greetings would imply, for they are mindful 
of the debt of gratitude they in common with 
all other citizens of New York owe to Pro- 
fessor Bickmore for his services in initiating 
the great plan of the American Museum of 
Natural History. His enthusiasm and per- 
sistent optimism were the principal factors 
in arousing the interest of that splendid group 
of men who actually created the American 
Museum of Natural History. 

To Professor Bickmore also belongs the 
credit of conceiving the ideal plan of the rela- 
tions between the Museum and the munici- 
pality, which was adopted in the beginning 
and has work(>d so admirably that no material 
change has been necessary. 

His fostering care in the early days of the 
Museum and his influence in shaping its 
policy, combined with his clear perception of 
the scope of a Museum of Natural History, 
were of inestimable value in developing an 
institution of int(Tnational reputation. His 
devotion to the Museum has been mani- 
fested in many ways and by countless ser- 
vices from 1869 to the present time. His 
enduring monument will be the creation of 
the Department of Public Education in 
1880. 

The Trustees recall with pleasure their long 
personal aAsociation with Professor Bickmore 

144 



and desire to express their great esteem and 
high regard for him. 

(Signed) Cleveland H. Dodge 

Acting President 
(Signed) Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

Secretary 



At a meeting held on February 10, 
1914, the Faculty of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History unanimously 
adopted the following message of con- 
gratulation to Professor Albert S. Bick- 
more upon the attainment of his seventy- 
fifth birthday: 

Your associates on the scientific staff of the 
American Museum of Natural History extend 
to you their heartiest congratulations on the 
completion of seventy-five years of a Ufe, the 
major portion of which has been devoted to 
active and valued service to your fellow men. 

Born of sturdy New England stock, edu- 
cated in part under the immortal Louis 
Agassiz, fortunate in possessing far-sighted 
prescience and boundless enthusiasm, you 
conceived the idea of a great general museum 
of natural history to be located in the metrop- 
olis of the western world, impressed it upon 
the influential and public-spirited men of 
New York City, secured its satisfactory 
incorporation, and you have lived to see the 
fruition of your plans beyond your fondest 
original hopes. The child of your dreams has 
become a mighty adult in your later years, and 
the American Museum of Natural History 
has grown into an institution which confers 
honor upon the scientists who have the privi- 
lege of being connected with it. 

We, your colleagues, wish you peace and 
prosperity and the enjoyment of many addi- 
tional years in our midst. 

(Signed) P"'rederic A. Lucas 

Director 
(Signed) Edmund Otis Hovey 

Secretary 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT, PATRON OF THE 

AMERICAN MUSEUM'S FIELD WORK 

IN SOUTH AMERICA 



IT is with the greatest pleasure that 
the Journal pubhshes the follow- 
ing letter from Theodore Roosevelt 
to Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of 
the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory. The letter written at San Luiz 
de Caceres came sometime ago and has 
appeared in part in the New York daily 
papers, but it is a document of particular 
value to all connected with the American 
Museum as testifying to the broad- 
minded generosity of Colonel Roosevelt 
toward the institution and toward scien- 
tists, and as exemplifying his personal 
interest in scientific work. The Museum 
is awaiting the return of Colonel Roose- 
velt in May when an expedition to carry 
on the Museum's exploration of South 
America will be considered. The Duida 
region is geologically one of the oldest 
and least known on the South American 
continent and collections from there are 
certain to have great scientific value. 

Colonel Roosevelt gives all credit for 
results of the present South American 
expedition, which he is financing, to the 
men working with him; he insists that 
the men who have done the work in the 
field are decidedly the men to study and 
describe the material of the expedition 
in any book which may be forthcoming 
and he gives from his personal funds for 
the continuation of South American 
field work by his companions. 

The letter which follows is quoted 
almost in full: 

The trip has begun, I think I may say, 
fairly well, at least from the standpoint of 
the American Museum. Cherrie and Miller 
have now collected well over a thousand speci- 
mens of birds and mammals, and Kermit and 
I have been able to contribute specimens of 
some of the larger species, such as the jaguar. 



the giant ant-bear, the peccory, swamp deer, 
etc. I have already written Chapman as to 
my very earnest desire that Cherrie and 
Miller be permitted to publish under the 
auspices of the Museum a volume on the 
mammalogy and ornithology of Matto Grosso 
and Amazonas. I have the very strongest 
feeling that the most valuable work can 
always be done by men who are both trained 
scientific men and also field naturalists who 
with scientific knowledge write of what they 
have themselves seen in the field. I particu- 
larly wish to avoid seeing grow up in the 
United States the type of scientist who merely 
supplies the nomenclature and technical 
descriptions for specimens furnished him by 
field observers. As you know, I obtained 
permission from the Smithsonian people for 
Heller to do this work for the mammals of our 
African expedition. He has done much 
better work on such rare and little known 
species as the white rhinoceros, giant eland 
and Nile lechwe than could have been done 
by any man who did not combine both the 
technical knowledge and the field experience. 
Besides, it seems to me a matter of justice 
that the men who undergo the hardship and 
discomfort of work in the field should be 
permitted themselves to describe the animals 
they have collected, and to give their life 
histories. The man at home cannot ade- 
quately give the life histories. For instance, 
when Cherrie collected for the Rothschild 
Museum, he sent home the life histories, 
which were entirely distinctive individually, 
of three species of vulture. But the men at 
home, looking at the prepared specimens, saw 
no differences, and published an abbreviated 
account of his notes, gave no notes of the 
life histories at all, simply giving one name 
to three birds of entirely distinct habits, and, 
when freshly killed, entirely distinct aspect. 
As regards myself, I am only too delighted 
to have the chance of having such men as 
Cherrie and Miller with me, and I am proud 
of being connected with the Museum. What 
I do in paying the expenses of the two men 
is much more than repaid by the pleasure I 
get in having them with me and in helping 
to do the work. But if you and the authori- 
ties of the Museum feel that you would like 

145 



146 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



in any way to- recognize the fact that I have 
taken them with me, and am giving the col- 
lections to the Museum, then there is no 
other recognition that I would value in any 
way so much as the granting of the permis- 
sion to Cherrie and Miller to write this book 
themselves. They will put in careful notes 
on the Ufe histories of the mammals and birds. 
They have many such notes now. They 
already have most of the technical knowledge, 
and they can gain what they lack by six 
months study at home. The only objection 
that I can see will be that some little time 
will elapse, some months, possibly a year, 
before the volume could be put out. But 
they could submit (and I also, if you desire it) 
a preUminary report, very brief, for publica- 
tion in the Bulletin of the Museum, which 
would give you immediately the results of 
the expedition. Then if this volume were 
published, it would remain as a permanent 
contribution to scientific knowledge made 
under the auspices of the Museum, and of 
value similar to the work done by Agassiz and 
his companions in the trip to the Amazon 
fifty years ago. No other two field mammal- 
ogists and ornithologists have had the oppor- 
tunity that this trip will give to Cherrie and 
Miller, and I want to see their work preserved 
in a volume and not in a collection of pam- 
phlets. Pamphlets, even scientific pam- 
phlets, are almost as ephemeral as newspapers. 
For example, Allen lent us his copy of Slater 
and Hudson's volume on Argentine ornithol- 
ogy to take down with us. It has been of the 
utmost value to us, to all of us and to me 
personally, whereas none of us know of the 
very existence of the multitude of little pam- 
phlets on Argentine ornithology that were 
published about the time this work was pub- 
lished. Really the only use that pamphlets 
serve are as bricks out of which some perma- 
nent structure can be made by a writer who 
will devote himself to serious work on the 
subject, and one good big work is worth at 
least a hundred good small works on portions 
of the same subjects. 

So far we have been favored by the weather, 
but it looks now as if the rainy season had 
begun, and we shall probably have a good 
deal of discomfort during the next four 



months. Probably we shall not collect as 
many specimens during these next four 
months as we have already collected in the 
last six weeks. All the specimens that have 
not been shipped from Corumba will be 
shipped from San Luiz de Caceres, from which 
point on, our facilities for transportation will 
be greatly diminished. Cherrie and Miller 
have already had some rough experiences with 
mosquitoes and other insects on their collect- 
ing tours, but where I have been so far there 
has been no hardship whatever. I shall 
make up for it however later on, especially 
if we are able to do as I hope and go down 
the unknown river of which Colonel Rondon 
has come across the head. In that case one 
of the naturalists, probably Cherrie, will go 
down the river with me, and Miller will go 
down by the Gy Parana and Madeira, so that 
the collections will be covering two territories. 

When I get back I am anxious to help you 
send Miller to complete his work around 
Mount Duida, to ascend the mountain to the 
top, and thoroughly to work the neighborhood 
from the standpoint of the mammalogist and 
ornithologist. He ought to have about five 
thousand dollars for the trip. I will sub- 
scribe one thousand and do my best to help 
raise the remainder. . . . Miller has begun this 
work around Mount Duida, and if he is 
given the time and the moderate amount of 
money necessary, he can thoroughly finish the 
work and do something emphatically credita- 
ble to the Museum. As I shall probably 
take Cherrie down the river de Duvida, I 
wish to give this as a kind of consolation 
prize to Miller! I shall also help, with a 
thousand dollars in sending Cherrie back, for 
the Museum to work thoroughly these upper 
Paraguay marshc?. They offer a wonderful 
field. 

I very earnestly hope that Chapman has 

been favorably struck by my proposal, that 

you will be favorably struck by it, and that 

my request will be granted .... 

Faithfully yours, 

(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt 

President Henry Fairfield Osborn, 

American Museum of Natural History, 
New York City. 



BANDELIER 



PIONEER STUDENT OF ANCIENT 
AMERICAN RACES 



By Clark Wissler 



ADOLPH FRANCIS ALPHONSE 
BANDELIER died in Madrid, 
Spain, on March 18, 1914. He 
was born at Berne, Switzerland, in 1840 
and came to America while a youth. In 
early life he resided in Highland, Illinois, 
where he was married to Josephine Huegy 
in 1862. He was always a student and 
during the formative period of his life 
came under the influence of Lewis H. 
Morgan, one of the world's most noted 
social philosophers. In conversation. 
Dr. Bandelier always referred to Morgan 
as "my revered teacher." That the 
influence of Morgan was fundamental is 
clear from Bandelier's writings, for he 
never approaches the social problems 
of ethnology from any other than the 
Morgan point of view. This is espe- 
cially true of his first important work, 
an epoch-making study of the Aztecs, 
published in 1877-8. 

Dr. Bandelier's first important work 
in archaeology began with his commis- 
sion by the Archaeological Institute of 
America to survey and report upon the 
pueblo ruins of New Mexico. This work 
occupied his whole time from 1880-1889. 
He traversed, chiefly on foot, the entire 
Rio Grande Valley, examined and sur- 
veyed all the known village sites, made a 
careful study of the historical traditions 
of the living Indians and made masterly 
use of the Spanish archives. By corre- 
lating the accounts of the surviving 
Indians and the records of the early 
Spanish explorers with his own objective 
study of the ruins, he was able to sepa- 
rate the historic from the prehistoric 
ruins. His reports extend through sev- 
eral volumes and constitute the great 



classic of American archaeological re- 
search. 

In 1892, Dr. Bandelier began collect- 
ing and investigating the archaeology 
of Peru under the direction of the late 
Henry Villard. In 1894, Mr. Villard 
presented the collection to this Museum. 
The Museum then took up the work 
and supported it continuously until 
1901. During this time Dr. Bandelier 
was working systematically and steadily 
in Peru. With the approval of Profes- 
sor F. W. Putnam, then curator of 
anthropology, he set out to do in Peru 
what he had done in Arizona and New 
Mexico: i. e., to make an exhaustive 
investigation of the Peruvians by corre- 
lating historical, ethnological and archae- 
ological researches. 

In 1903 he came to New York to 
work up his data and was officially con- 
nected with the American Museum un- 
til 1906, when he resigned to take up 
some research work in the Hispanic 
Museum. Shortly after, illness over- 
took him and left him permanently 
disabled. In consequence the results of 
his Peruvian work remain unformulated, 
the task he had undertaken being too 
exacting for his declining years. Thus, 
unfortunately, his most distinctive work 
will be the archaeology of the Rio 
Grande Valley and the ethnology of 
the Aztecs. 

The selection of Dr. Bandelier by the 
directors of the Archaeological Institute 
to carry out their plans in the Southwest 
was chiefly due to the strong indorse- 
ment given him by Lewis H. Morgan. 
In the report of the Archaeological Insti- 
tute for 1881 announcing his appoint- 

147 



148 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ment, will be found the following esti- 
mate of his fitness: 

.... Mr. Bandelier has for many years 
occupied himself with the study of the history 
and institutions of the native races of Mexico 
and the adjoining region, at the time of, and 
before the Spanish Conquest and settlement 
of the country. The remarkable extent and 
solidity of his learning in this field, his sound 
judgment, and his acute intelligence in the 
interpretation of historical evidence, have 
been shown in his able and important essays, 
"On the Art of War and Mode of Warfare of 
the Ancient Mexicans"; "On the Distribu- 
tion and Tenure of Lands, and the Customs 
with respect to Inheritance, among the 
Ancient Mexicans"; and "On the Social 
Organization and Mode of Government of 
the Ancient Mexicans." 

Thus qualified by erudition. Dr. Bandelier 
is no less qualified by character for the task 
of investigating the life and traditions of the 
descendants of the people whom the Span- 
iards found inhabiting the countries which 
they conquered and occupied. His energy 
and zeal, his capacity of adapting himself to 
circumstances, his readiness to endure the 
hardships incident to the performance of his 
task, his unusual linguistic attainments, his 
trained faculty of observation, form a combi- 
nation of qualities such as warrant the value 
of the work he may perform in the explora- 
tion of the ancient remains, and the observa- 
tion of the actual life of the Indians of the 
Pueblos of the Southwest. 

That he did get deep into Indian life 
is clear from extracts from his letters to 
Charles Eliot Norton, then President 
in the Archaeological Institute. In a 
letter headed Cochiti, November 27, 
1880, he wrote: 

My relations with the Indians of this 
pueblo are very friendly. Sharing their 



food, their hardships, and their pleasures, 
simple as they are, a mutual attachment has 
formed itself, which grows into sincere 
affection. They begin to treat me as one of 
their own, and to exhibit toward me that 
spirit of fraternity which prevails among 
them in their communism. Of course they 
have squabbles among themselves, which 
often reveal to me some new features of their 
organization; but on the whole they are the 
best people the sun shines upon. How long 
will they last? They progress slowly, but 
still they are progressing. God preserve 
them from any attempt at rapid "American- 
ization." It would be their death-blow. 

At night, if they do not come to see me, 
to sit around very modestly without inter- 
ruption of my work, I sometimes go to call 
on some of my nearest friends among them, 
especially the Lieutenant of the "Capitan 
della Guerra," Victoriano, a young man with 
a small family. Squatting on one of their 
low stools, hewn out of one block, or stretched 
out side by side on serapes, we chat and 
smoke — water, out of the common tinaja, 
being the only refreshment offered and ex- 
pected. His wife and his sister go about, 
mingling freely in the conversation — for 
both sexes are on a footing of great equality. 
We talk Spanish, and sometimes a word in 
Queres. The girls tease me about my de- 
fective pronunciation. 

In another letter he says: 

The Indians talk freely with me. Juan 
Jose has begun to dictate to me in Queres the 
history of Montezuma. I maintain my 
original position — namely, that it is a stem 
of Catholic ideas, and of the history of the 
Conquest, and have even the proof of it. 
The document will be at least linguistically 
interesting. With the assistance of an 
Indian friend, who has been at the school of 
the Christian Brethren at Santa Fc, I am 
beginning to assort my linguistic material 
grammatically. 




The dooryard of the president of the Meriden Bird Club. More than one hundred redpolls and 
pine siskins feeding on hemp seed which has been scattered over the surface of the snow 

WHAT ONE VILLAGE IS DOING FOR THE BIRDS' 

By Ernest Harold Baynes 



I HAVE always had the firm convic- 
tion that if people could learn to 
know the birds better and study 
the best means of attracting and pro- 
tecting them, the education of the people 
would in itself make legislation less 
needed, give better laws, and laws that 
would be kept. It was with this idea 
in mind that I began three years ago to 
interest the people in the little village of 
Meriden, New Hampshire, in becoming 
better acquainted with the birds. In 
order to do this, I gave in the chapel of 

I An address delivered before the American 
Ornithologists' Union at its last session, at the 
American Museum of Natural History, New York 
City. 



the Kimball Union Academy an illus- 
trated lecture which laid stress upon the 
economic value of birds, and in which I 
urged the people of Meriden, and espe- 
cially the students of the Academy, to 
start a movement looking to the organi- 
zation of a bird club. The matter was 
immediately taken up and with the assis- 
tance of the Academy a bird club was 
formed with a membership of sixty, for 
"the increase and protection of our local 
wild birds, the stimulation of interest in 
bird life and the gradual establishment 
of a model bird sanctuary." 

Starting with the idea that birds are 
very much like human beings in that 

149 



150 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



their material wants are much the same 
— something to eat and drink and a 
shelter and place in which to rear their 
young — it became our purpose to pro- 
vide them with these things so far as we 
could. 

The first thing that we did was to raise 
a fund for the purchase of bird houses. 
There are scarcely a hundred and fifty 
people in our little village of Meriden, 
exclusive of the Academy, and few of the 
people are well to do. With a little 
outside help however, we were able to 
raise two hundred dollars, for almost 
everybody contributed something, the 
contributions ranging from fifteen cents 
to two dollars — few gave over that. 

The food house that we adopted is an 
adaptation of the type invented by 




The "Audubon" food house used at Meriden. The lower food 
tray Is open and serves as an advertisement for the upper tray under 
the roof L2 



Baron Hans von Berlepsch and seems to 
be so admirably fitted for the purpose for 
which it is intended that we have given 
it. the official title of "Audubon" food 
house. The Audubon food house has a 
hopper roof of wood, an upper food tray, 
inclosed by four glass sides, and a lower 
food tray which is open and serves as an 
advertisement for the upper, the whole 
being supported by a pole which runs to 
the roof. After the birds have eaten 
the contents of the lower tray, the more 
adventurous ones lead the way to the 
upper, in which is kept a permanent sup- 
ply of food, protected from the winds 
and storms by the glass sides about it 
and the roof above. These bird houses 
are a source of delight to the people as 
well as to the birds, for through the glass 
sides the birds may be 
seen hopping about and, 
taking the greatest sat- 
isfaction in the repast 
that is provided for 
them. 

Almost immediately 
after the formation of 
our bird club came the 
first snow and as food 
that is thrown out to 
the birds in winter 
readily sinks into the 
snow, the boys of the 
Academy attempted to 
provide a feeding- 
ground for them. At 
first they used shovels 
to clear away a space 
but soon discovered 
that a better method 
consisted in trampling 
down the snow. After 
the boys had done this, 
the girls came out to 
scatter seed — and this 
practice still continues. 
Another method of 



WORK OF THE MERIDEN BIRD CLUB 



151 



feeding that the boys adopted consisted 
in tying suet to the trees. They secured 
a large quantity of suet from the local 
butcher and fastened portions of it with 
several pieces of string so that birds could 
not take it away all at once, and 
high enough from the 
ground to be out of the 
reach of the dogs. Suet 
is a most valuable sub- 
stitute for insect food 
and one which many 
birds appreciate. 

Another and rather 
unique idea of a " food 
tree" seems also to 
"take" very well with 
the birds. Into large 
pots we put things 
that birds particularly 
like — suet, hemp seed, 
bread crumbs and other 
kinds of small food — 
and when this is boiling 
hot a number of the 
towns people pour it on 
the branches of dis- 
carded Christmas trees 
and scrubby spruces 
and hemlocks that have 
been cut down and 
planted in the garden. 
From this cafeteria 
each bird takes what 
he likes best. 

The weathercock 
food house, the design 
for which was kindly 
sent to me by Mr. 
William Dutcher, has 
been successfully used 
also. As the name im- 
plies, this food house 
moves with the wind 
and the entrance is al- 
ways away from the 
storm. The movement 



of the house does not seem to disturb 
the birds in the least. 

Another contrivance that we have for 
birds in winter is the window box. Ours 
is a plain glass case with a wooden frame 
which has at the top a groove into which 




<&.:^ 






flik 



Blue jays feeding in a weathercock food iiouse. Birds are like human 
beings in that their material wants are the same, something to eat 
and drink and a sheltered home in which to raise their young. The 
movement of the weathercock house does not disturb the birds 





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WORK OF THE MERIDEN BIRD CLUB 



153 



the window fits snugly and a door 
through which to put the food. The 
box is of course entirely open on the 
garden side and projects into the room 
for about a foot. The birds seem to 
enjoy it thoroughly and it adds such a 
cheery tone to the room that many who 
have seen it have become enthusiastic 
and have made similar boxes. Into this 
window box come woodpeckers, blue 
jays, juncos, chickadees and other birds; 
they are practically in the room with us 
with only a sheet of 
glass between and we 
are able to observe 
them and to photo- 
graph them at our 
leisure. 

The birds have be- 
come so well ac- 
quainted with the 
people in Meriden 
and their friendly at- 
titude toward them 
that it seems as 
though there is no 
limit to their tame- 
ness and especially is 
this true of the chick- 
adees. They alight 
upon our clothing 
when we go out, they 
perch upon the barrels 
of our guns when we 
walk abroad in pur- 
suit of their enemies, 
and they even come to take breakfast 
with us. At first when they would fly 
into the dining-room, they would seize 
the nuts scattered on the table for them 
and then be off, but in order to urge 
them to stay longer with us and to show 
them how welcome they were, we 
stitched the nuts to the tablecloth — and 
they stayed. 

Another thing that we have attempted 
to do for the birds is to provide them with 




A lady's hat where birds are safe 



houses and nest boxes so attractive that 
they would stay with us to make their 
nests and rear their young. The martins 
had not been seen in Meriden in twenty- 
five years and one of our aims was to 
attract them. We made houses from 
flour barrels and the martins did come 
back and although they did not actually 
nest with us they went so far as to tear 
out the nests of the tree swallows, and 
I think that next year they will, decide to 
build. The humming birds would come 
with the lilacs and 
leave when they had 
faded, but with the 
use of bright artificial 
flowers in which were 
hidden vials of honey 
and water we per- 
suaded them to stay 
with us throughout 
the summer. An old 
shed of ours had been 
a favorite nesting 
place for the phoebes 
and when it became 
necessary for us to 
part with the shed it 
seemed as though we 
might lose the birds 
too, but shelves that 
I tacked up inside the 
veranda have served 
their purpose well and 
the phoebes continue 
to visit us. For the 
birds which naturally nest in holes in 
trees, we imported nests that are exact 
facsimiles of their own but we had so 
much trouble about importing them that 
we now make them ourselves. 

Bird baths have formed another inter- 
esting feature of our work and last 
summer we observed eighteen different 
kinds of birds bathing at one of the baths. 
We placed flat stones in some of the 
baths so that the birds can go into the 




White-winged crossbills feeding in the snow. As food that is thrown out to the birds in winter 
readily sinks into the snow and is thus lost to the birds, at Meriden the plan is followed of tramp- 
ling down the snow to form a feeding-ground on which the seed is scattered. This method has been 
found to be more practicable than shoveling away the snow. 




A picturesque bird bath in Meriden, New Hampshire, 
birds have been observed bathing at such a bird bath 
154 



As many as eighteen different kinds of 



water by degrees; in 
others the bottoms 
sloped gradually so as 
to vary the depth. 
Land birds dislike to 
step immediately into 
deep water. A light 
lunch for them is placed 
near by and it is an 
amusing sight to watch 
them bathe, eat and 
bathe again. 

One of the objects of 
the club was the estab- 
lishment of a bird sanc- 
tuary and this has been 
made possible by a gift 
of a thousand dollars 
from Miss Helen Wood- 
ruff Smith. With this 
money we bought a thirty-acre farm a bird sanctuary. The farmhouse we 
which has been laid out by Mr. Frederic shall convert into a museum to which 
H. Kennard, the landscape architect, and people may come to see the best methods 
which we are gradually developing into of attracting the birds. 




Mrs. Baynes with a chickadee friend 




A chickadee at the entrance of a Berlepsch bird box 



155 



156 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



When last autumn it was decided to 
dedicate the sanctuary, Mr. Percy 
Mackaye wrote for the occasion a bird 
masque. Two of President Wilson's 
daughters. Miss Eleanor and Miss Mar- 
garet Wilson took part, and the masque 
was produced in the little village of 
Meriden, eight miles from the nearest 
railroad, before six hundred of the most 
distinguished people in New England at 
that time, including President and Mrs. 
Wilson. The masque was a success 
and in the repertory of the Coburn 
Players continues to play its part in the 
campaign for wild bird conservation. 
But after all, this work is only a be- 
ginning. It is a beginning however of 
which we are proud, for similar clubs 
are springing up all around us — in Han- 
over, Cornish, Claremont, Charlestown, 
Walpole and Franklin in New Hamp- 
shire; Brookline, Milton, Springfield, 
Southboro, Groton, and Pittsfield in 



Massachusetts; Montpelier in Vermont; 
Glens Falls in New York, and many 
other places — all as a direct result of 
the work done in our little village of a 
hundred and fifty people. And in every 
town and village where there has been a 
bird club the results have been good. 
Not only have the birds been benefited 
but the girls and boys as well, for they 
have been taught kindness, thoughtful- 
ness and generosity and children who 
learn these things make pretty good citi- 
zens whether they are taught anything 
else or not. 

My experience so far has led me to be 
fully convinced that if a network of these 
clubs can be stretched across the country, 
such an interest and love for the birds 
will be created that, as I said in opening, 
there will be little need for legislation 
and what legislation is needed will readily 
be secured. 




Young catbirds discussing tlic pure food question 



THE CHARLES S. MASON COLLECTION 

By Alanson Skinner 



DURING recent years few acces- 
sions in archseology have rivaled 
in interest the Mason collection 
from Tennessee, donated to the Museum 
in the summer of 1913 by Mr. J. P. 
Morgan. The material is the fruit of 
many years of painstaking work by 
Mr. Charles S. Mason and is of added 
value to students in that it was gathered 
within one general lo- 
cality, the vicinity of 
Jonesboro, Tennessee. 
Many of the specimens 
come from an old ab- 
original cemetery on 
the Nolachucky River, 
and may be examples 
of Cherokee handicraft. 
The collection con- 
tains two of the rare 
engraved shell gorgets 
so typical of the archae- 
ology of southeastern 
United States. They 
are made of the shell of 
one of the large conchs 
found both in the Gulf 
of Mexico and along 
the southern coast and 
traded inland. Ex- 
amples of a similar sort 
have been discovered in 
the mound area of the 
Ohio Valley. With the 
gorgets are included a 
number of massive shell 
beads, such as are found 
especially with skele- 
tons exhumed from the 
stone-lined graves of 
Tennessee, and several 

interesting pins of shell 

1 , , , rrM Arrow points 

are also notable. There serrated edge 



are also in the collection a number of 
perforated bear's teeth and a trade 
copper gorget. 

A remarkable series of steatite pend- 
ants of all imaginable forms was brought 
together by Mr. Mason. These include 
a number of miniature grooved axes, 
some seemingly suspended by a thong 
tied about the groove, others perforated 




flaked into a great variety of forms, several with 

157 



158 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



for the reception of the string. There 
is also a small set of banner stones — 
problematic forms which archaeologists 
for want of better data are given to 
class as ceremonials. Several boat-shaped 
ornaments, one or two of which hint at a 
use as pottery -polishers are included. 
A number of highly polished hematite 
cones may have served a like purpose. 
Quite unusual is a broken "bird-shaped 



pipes of stone, both in natural and geo- 
metric forms, the Mason collection excels 
and fills a gap in our series — for we 
formerly had but a single specimen. 
Some of the stone pipes, particularly 
the plain rectangular type, run the whole 
gamut from a specimen weighing several 
pounds and of gigantic size to one 
scarcely an inch high. Some in coarse 
pottery are good examples of the angu- 




Tho lower row illustrates the drill points used in drilling the holes in the objects sliown in the 
illustrations on pages 159 and 162. In the upper row are examples of arrow and spear points or knives 



amulet" with bulging eyes, a type far 
more frequently found farther north. 

The Museum's old collection from 
Tennessee was better off than the new 
collection as regards the colossal stone 
effigy pipes found there. These pipes, 
usually made of steatite are massive and 
consist generally of well-executed carv- 
ings of birds and mammals. There are 
several in the new collection however, 
and in small and delicately worked 



lar, trumpet-shaped and straight tubular 
pipes. The clay pipes of the Southeast 
are all cruder in quality ami workman- 
ship than those farther north, in the 
country of the Iroquois for instance. 

The Mason collection contains some 
huge flint knife and "spear" blades, and 
an unusual number of arrow points, 
drills and scrapers. A selected series of 
bizarre forms in arrowhead chippings 
shows extraordinary flights of native 




On the left are flaked spear points. The two largest grooved axes at the right are especially 
typical of Tennessee and Kentucky. The object in the lower center is a discoidal 




Stone pendants and charms 



159 




These graceful bowls and vases are ornamented more crudely than many others from Ten- 
nessee. Those that are not plain have a few rude incised designs 




Pipes of stone and clay carved and modeled in a variety of forms. The Indians of Tennessee 
and Kentucky were noted even in the earliest days for their huge, elaborately made stone pipes 
160 




INTERESTING SPECIMENS FROM THE MASON COLLECTION 

The object at the left of unknown use is usually called a " spud "; that at the right is one 
of the few known specimens of axes with blade and handle complete in one piece of stone. 
This type of axe forms a connecting link between the archaeology of southeastern North America 
and northern South America. It is rare in North America but specimens have occasionally 
been found, especially in the Southeast, while a related form occurs on the Northwest Coast 

161 



162 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



fancy. There is besides a large and 
splendid series of grooved axes, including 
some fine examples of the ridged grooved 
axe, found most abundantly in that 
region. Several excellent celts of pe- 
culiar form are included, some with 
triangular longitudinal sections, others 
with circular cross sections. Some ex- 
amples have flaring bitts, a not common 
form. 

Perhaps the most interesting single 
specimen is an axe with its handle, 
worked from a single piece of stone. 
Such axes are rare in North America, 
but have occasionally been found, espe- 
cially in the Southeast; while a related 
form occurs on the northwest coast, 
about Puget Sound particularly. A 
single specimen from within fifty miles 
of New York City is known to the 
writer. It is in the hands of a private 
collector. This type of axe is found in 
northern South America and in the West 
Indies (the Museum has a specimen from 
Caicos Island in the Bahamas), and 
forms a connecting link between the 
archaeology of southeastern North Amer- 
ica and northern South America, 

A beautiful example of the problem- 
atic polished stone implement called a 
"spud" is also a much to be desired ad- 
dition. Another equally fine object of 
this class, from Kentucky, is in the old 
Douglass collection. Discoidals, called 
"chungke" stones from their supposed 
use in an Indian game of that name, 
are well represented in the Mason col- 
lection, and bell-shaped and straight 
pestles and grooved and pitted hammer 
stones are present galore. 

There are too few bone and antler 
implements, only a few awls and needles 



being present, but pottery is represented 
by quite a number of pieces, mostly 
from graves. These are nearly all plain, 
and resemble the ware of the lower 
Mississippi region more than that of the 
southern Atlantic coast. No painted 
examples are found. Several vessels 




Ornaments of carved steatite. Three 
these represent miniature grooved axes 



of 



from graves have holes knocked in their 
bottoms, presumably in conformity with 
the Indian custom in that region of 
"killing" all objects placed with the 
dead, so that the spirit of the utensil 
may accompany the soul of the deceased 
on its long journey to the other world. 



A PLEA FOR HASTE IN MAKING DOCUMENTARY 
RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



By Edward S. Curtis 



M 



R. CHARLES DAWSON, in dis- 
covering the " Sussex Man "and 
accompanying flints, aroused 
the whole civiUzed world and with 
the skull restored, scientists the world 
over began to make their deductions. 
Even with their learned conclusions 
before us however, it is a tax upon 
the imagination to form a picture of the 
"Sussex Man" as he lived the hypothe- 
tical four hundred and fifty thousand 
years ago. With concentration we gaze 
upon the skull, touch the flints and try 
to force our minds back into the hazy 
dawn of life, expressed only in geological 
terms — Miocene, Pliocene and Pleisto- 
cene. W'e try but with little success to 
form a picture of the " Sussex Man," of his 
mate, his children, his home — a literal 
picture of the people and of the environ- 
ment where they wandered contem- 
porary with the strange animals of those 
remote geological periods. 

What is true of man in his earlier types 
applies to all anthropological records. 
We value the skull, the skeleton, the 
artifacts, the clothing; but beyond 
these we want the documentary picture 
of the people and their home-land — a 
picture that will show the soul of the 
people. In the study of primitive man 
the interest is more in his psychology 
than in his economics, more in his songs 
and prayers than in his implements. 
In fact, we study his implements that 
we may get light upon his mental 
processes. 

I desire to add my plea to that of 
others for prompt work by all of those 
who would gather first-hand knowledge 
from the North American Indian. Many 
take issue with the thought that the 



Indian is a "vanishing race." As far 
as the ethnologist is concerned, this race 
is not only vanishing but has almost 
vanished. We are now working late 
in the afternoon of the last day. Each 
month some old patriarch dies and with 
him goes a store of knowledge and there 
is nothing to take its place. Each year 
the change in the life is more noticeable 
and the gathering of material more 
difficult. What is to be done in the 
field as far as original research is con- 
cerned must be done in the next few 
years. 

In gathering the lore of the Indian one 
hears only of yesterday. His thoughts 
are no longer of the present for to- 
day is but a living death and the hope- 
lessness of to-morrow permeates his very 
being. If the narrator is nearing the 
end of his days, he lives over and over 
again the life when his tribe as a tribe 
flourished — the time when his people 
were truly monarchs; if he is a young 
man and a true Indian, he is a living 
regret that he is not of the time of 
the supremacy of his people — when to 
be an Indian was to be a man. 

We have all heard voiced many times 
that the greatest blot upon the history 
of the United States is our treatment of 
the Indian. Having spent a good part 
of my working lifetime around the camp 
and council fire, I can only say like the 
Indian, "Aye! Aye!" to this. Yet our 
strong sympathy for the Indian must not 
blind us to the fact that the change that 
has come has been necessitated by the 
expansion of the white population and 
for once at least Nature's laws have been 
the cause of a grievous wrong. No one 
will deny however that the inevitable 

163 




Copyright by Edward S. Curtit 
SIOUX INVOCATION 

The SioTix warrior is iDvoking the supernatural powers to aid him in an undertaking or grant 
him a revelation. By way of propitiation he is holding a pipe with "the mouthpiece toward the 
gods inviting them to smolce 
164 



RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



165 



transformation of the Indian's life has 
been made infinitely harder by the white 
man's cupidity. Not only have we been 
unfair to the Indian; but as a nation 
rightly and proudly giving considerable 
study to man, we have also neglected a 
very great opportunity. Much has been 
done, it is true — ethnological research of 
importance has been conducted during 
recent years — yet a vast amount re- 
mains to be done. The American In- 
dians possess many noble traits which 
were no doubt not common to the aver- 
age primitive man of the same state of 
development. By some strange chance 
the precursors of this branch of the 
human race were held for ages in the 
grip of darkness, perhaps due to isola- 
tion, perhaps an instance of retrogres- 
sion. Possibly time will throw light 
upon the cause. This however is cer- 
tain: the American Indian has afforded 
advanced science in an age of civilization 
an excellent opportunity to study primi- 
tive man at a most interesting period. 
Geologically speaking that period is the 



one immediately following the acquisi- 
tion of implements — the period when he 
was yet awkward in the use of such tools 
as his sluggishly inventive brain had 
evolved, and before the inventive faculty 
had yet fully awakened to the fact that 
successful existence depended upon rea- 
son more than upon instinct. 

Again, the students of the world are 
searching and analyzing the earliest of 
the known scriptures, the "Vedas," for 
insight into primitive religious thought, 
belief and practice, and here in the 
United States we have a living "Veda," 
a great people possessing primitive be- 
liefs and practices. As a nation we have 
not given even a small fraction of the at- 
tention to this subject which it deserves. 
Financial support has been lacking. Also 
men with the ability to do justice to the 
task have turned their attention in other 
directions. It is not however altogether 
too late. Let us trust that there will 
come an awakening and that the utmost 
will be made of the last of this oppor- 
tunity. 




MUSEUM NOTES 



Since the last issue of the Journal the 
following persons have become members of 
the Museum: 

Fellow, Mrs. Ezra Ripley Thayer; 

Ldfe Members, Mrs. Maud W. Adams, 
Mrs. Percy Rivington Pyne, Mrs. J. 
Henry Watson, Miss Olivia Cutting and 
Mr. Thomas M. Peters; 

Annual Members, Mrs. A. T. Bailey, Mrs. 
John S. Bassett, Mrs. Dennis G. Brussel, 
Mrs. S. G. Cannon, Mrs. Stuart Crockett, 
Mrs. Arthur Lipper, Mrs. J. C. W. Low- 
rey, Mrs. William Menke, Mrs. Henry 
F. De Puy, Mrs. Enos S. T. Richardson, 
Mrs. Drew King Robinson, Mrs. R. L. 
Spotts, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Spadone, Mrs. 
Graham Sumner, Mrs. Clermont H. 
Wilcox, Mrs. Josephine Zeman, Miss 
Edith M. Clark, Miss Minnie Helen 
Hicks, Miss Grace E. Lynes, Miss Har- 
riet F. Massey, Miss Eva C. Putney, 
Miss Catherine L. Richardson, Dr. Otto 
Koenig, Dr. George W. Kosmak, Dr. 
Rudolph F. Rabe and Messrs. Emil V. 
Kohnstamm, Howard V. Meeks, G. Hall 
Roosevelt, H. Ernest Schnakenberg, 
Alexander M. Stewart, and Graham 
Sumner. 

On Wednesday evening, April 22, a joint 
meeting of the National Sculpture Society, 
the Architectural League of New York and 
the MacDowell Club will be held under the 
auspices of the American Museum. Mr. 
Carl E. Akeley will give an illustrated talk 
on hunting in African jungles and this will be 
followed by an inspection in the Museum 
elephant studio of the African hall model 
which has been constructed under the super- 
vision of Mr. Akeley and of the life size ele- 
phant group he has in preparation for this hall, 
as well as of various of his animal sculptures. 
This recognition by the artists of New York 
of the methods and results of the taxidermy 
developed by Mr. Akeley as in close alliance 
or even in part synonymous with the work 
of the sculptor is a step of great importance 
for the museum of the future. The ele- 
phant studio and model of the African hall 
will be on exhibition to the public on cer- 
tain days to be announced later but they 
are open at all times to members and their 
friends upon presentation of their member- 
ship tickets. 
166 



The cover design of this number of the 
Journal is from the rough clay model made by 
Mr. A. Phimister Proctor for a lion group to 
take its place with the various other groups 
of African animals in the future African hall 
of the Museum. 

The Copper Queen Mine model, the most 
elaborate and realistic mine model in any 
museum, has recently been opened to the 
public and will be described and illustrated 
in the May Journal. The data and means 
necessary for the construction of the model 
were furnished by Dr. James Douglas and 
the opening of the model marks the culmina- 
tion of more than three years of painstaking 
work on the part of Mr. A. Briesemeister and 
assistants under the direction of Dr. E. O. 
Hovey of the department of geology. 

The American Association of Museums will 
hold its ninth annual series of meetings in 
Milwaukee on May 19 and 20 and in Chicago • 
on May 21. 

In recognition of his notable achievements 
in the field of natural science. Professor Henry 
Fairfield Osborn was presented with a gold 
medal by the National Institute of Social 
Sciences on March 20 at the New York 
Academy of Medicine. 

The President and Trustees of the Ameri- 
can Museum have the honor of announcing 
a special lecture for members, to be given by 
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband on May 6 
at 8:15, the subject being "Tibet and the 
Entrance to Lhasa." Sir Francis Younghus- 
band was the British commissioner to Tibet 
in 1902-4, the leader of the British Mission 
to Tibet, 1903-4 and is already well known to 
American readers through his various publi- 
cations among which are Heart of a Conti- 
nent; Relief of Chitral; South Africa of To-day; 
Kashmir; and India and Tibet. 

An exhibition of sculpture, paintings and 
drawings by Eli Harvey will be held at the 
Museum from April 6 to April 20. Many 
members of the Museum are already familiar 
with Mr. Harvey's work at the New York 
Zoological Park, where he was commissioned 
in 1901 to do the sculpture for the Lion 
House, and also with his sculpture in the 



MCSEUM NOTES 



167 



Metropolitan Museum of Art and will appre- 
ciate the opportunity of seeing his paintings 
and drawings, which have never before been 
placed on view. 

In connection with its work with the blind 
the Museum has prepared twelve globes to 
be loaned to the public schools in which 
blind children are taught. These globes were 
prepared in consultation with the late Ger- 
trude E. Bingham, supervisor of classes for 
the bhnd in New York City. They are 
twenty-six inches in diameter and show the 
land masses in relief. The expense of the 
preparation of the globes was met by the Jon- 
athan Thorne Memorial Fund for the blind. 

Dr. Ralph W. Tower will lecture in the 
Summer School of Columbia University on 
"Bibliography of Natural History Subjects" 
and the "Administration of a Special Li- 
brary." 

At the meeting of the American Ethno- 
logical Society to be held at the American 
Museum on April 30, Professor Franz 
Boas will read a paper on "Indian Mytholo- 
gies of Alaska and Northern British Colum- 
bia." 

A GROUP representing a number of deep- 
sea luminous fishes has just been completed 
in the Museum and opened to the public. 
It represents ten species of fishes found in 
profound depths of the sea, half a mile or 
more from the surface. Some of the fishes 
are provided with rows of luminous organs 
or with headlights, while others have a light 
at the end of a tentacle with which to attract 
their prey. The group is illuminated by 
electricity in such a way that the fishes may 
be viewed first as synoptic specimens in a 
case and secondly, as if they were living fishes 
swimming in the darkness of the deep sea, 
lighted only by their own luminous or phos- 
phorescent organs. A more detailed account 
of the group with illustrations will be given 
in a later issue of the Journal. 

The first of a series of Monographs of the 
Pacific Cetacea by Mr. Roy C. Andrews has 
just been pubUshed in the Memoirs of the 
American Museum of Natural History (new 
series, vol. 1, part v). This monograph is de- 
voted to the California gray whale {Rhachia- 
nectes glaucus Cope), which previous to Mr. 



Andrews' researches was little known, the 
knowledge of its habits and external anatomy 
resting almost exclusively upon the observa- 
tions made by Captain C. M. Scammon 
nearly forty years ago. Soon after the pub- 
Ucation of Captain Scammon's Marine 
Mammalia in 1874, the gray whale industry 
began to decline because of the rapid extermi- 
nation of the species by hunters, and for the 
last twenty years the gray whale has been 
lost to science and many naturalists believed 
it to be extinct. 

It was while studying cetaceans upon the 
coast of Japan in 1910 that Mr. Andrews 
learned from a whaling company there of 
the existence of an animal known as the 
"devil-fish" on the southeastern coast of 
Korea. From the descriptions given, he 
believed the animal to be the lost California 
gray whale and returned to the Orient in 
1911 for the purpose of studying the species 
during the winter fishing season. In that 
winter more than fifty specimens were taken, 
from which it was possible to make careful 
observations of the habits and external char- 
acters. Skeletons of two adults were secured, 
one of which is now in the American Museum 
and the other in the United States National 
Museum in Washington. These are the only 
complete specimens of this species in the 
world. The California gray whale is on the 
whole one of the most remarkable of primi- 
tive and existing baleen cetaceans and might 
be called a "living fossil" — yet the work 
which Mr. Andrews has done has been prac- 
tically in an untouched field. 

In the monographs which are to follow, 
Mr. Andrews will endeavor to show whether 
or not the species of whale occurring in the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are synonymous. 
Many cetologists believe that almost all of 
the large whales are cosmopolitan in distribu- 
tion. This has not been demonstrated be- 
cause of lack of material, which fortunately 
the American Museum now possesses. 

Two remarkable new fossil mammals are 
among the rarities of the collections recently 
obtained from the Lower Eocene of Wyoming. 
One is a tiny relative of the Notoungulata, 
an order of extinct Tertiary hoofed animals 
never found hitherto outside of South America. 
Its discovery in so ancient a formation in 
this country raises some interesting problems 
in ancient geography, for South America is 
supposed to have been an island continent 



168 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



during most of the Tertiary, certainly during 
its early part. Did this animal come from 
South America or did the South American 
animals originally come from North America? 
For this fossil is probably older than any of 
its known South American relatives. And 
how, or when did it cross? The other fossil 
is beUeved to be a relative of the "flying 
lemur" (Galeopithecus) an oriental animal 
which has no near hving relatives and is 
placed in an order and family by itself. 
Nothing was known of its geological history. 
The discovery of a fossil relative so far 
back as the Lower Eocene indicates the group 
really of very ancient lineage. 

These animals along with many other new 
or little known species of the Lower Eocene, 
will be described in forthcoming articles in 
the American Museum Bulletin. 

A CAVE which was broken into by the 
Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Com- 
pany at Bisbee, Arizona, has been attrac- 
tively reproduced in the department of 
geology and has recently been opened to the 
public. The cave is typical of those formed 
in semi-arid regions of Arizona, where the 
rainfall each year amounts to about ten 
inches. The cavern was the work of under- 
ground water during a period of greater 
rainfall than at present. The incrustation 
of the walls occurred later and is due to lime- 
bearing water seeping slowly through the 
walls of the chamber and there evaporating 
at a rate favoring the growth of crystals and 
crystalline globules. Where the supply of 
water has been greater or has been concen- 
trated along a crevice or an intersection of 
crevices, stalactites have formed from the 
ceiling and corresponding stalagmites have 
grown upward from the floor. The material 
for the reproduction was collected by Dr. 
E. O. Hovey and the cave was made under 
his direction by Mr. W. B. Peters. 

The Philadelphia Academy of Sciences 
recently sent to the American Museum for 
identification the skeleton of a beaked whale 
which was taken at Corson's Inlet on the 
New Jersey coast by Mr. Henry W. Fowler. 
The whale proved to be a full-grown speci- 
men of Mesoplodon densirostris Blainville. 
In 1898 the skeleton of a whale taken at 
Annisquam, Massachusetts, was secured 
for the Boston Society of Natural History 
and identified as Sowerby's beaked whale 
(Mesoplodon hidens). Dr F. W. True later 



studied this specimen and came to the con- 
clusion that it probably represented Meso- 
plodon densirostris but could not be certain 
because of the somewhat injured skull. This 
species had only been found hitherto in the 
Indian Ocean and about Australia but so 
little is known about the distribution of the 
beaked whales that Dr. True did not consider 
this circumstance of great weight. The spec- 
imen sent by the Philadelphia Academy of 
Sciences has shown that the identification of 
the Massachusetts specimen as Mesoplodon 
densirostris was undoubtedly correct and not 
only definitely introduces into the North 
American fauna this interesting species but 
also gives important evidence as to the cos- 
mopolitan wanderings of the whales of this 
rare genus. 

When the articles on museum groups were 
written the Laysan group at the University 
of Iowa was not completed. Since that date 
the last touches have been added to the back- 
ground and a few figures will give an idea 
of the extent of this remarkable habitat group. 
[The cut in the February Journal naturally ' 
shows but a small portion as the group is 
cycloramic in its nature.] The painted back- 
ground is 138 feet long and twelve feet high; 
the foreground covers four hundred feet and 
not less than twenty-three species of birds 
are shown. As Mr. Homer R. Dill says, 
there are not many places where animal life 
is so abundant that a faithful reproduction 
of so many species of birds could be exhibited 
in so comparatively small a space. 

The department of anthropology has just 
purchased from Mr. J. B. Heffernan of 
Colorado Springs a collection of pottery 
from southern Utah. The collection consists 
of eighty pieces almost all of which are in 
black and white and in perfect condition. 

Dr. p. J. Oettinger has recently pre- 
sented to the Museum a very complete col- 
lection of Mexican woods from the state of 
Oaxaca. These woods were exhibited at the 
Paris exposition in 1899 and represent eighty- 
seven species. They are in an excellent state 
of preservation. 

Dr. C.-E. a. Winslow, curator of the 
department of public health, has been ap- 
pointed chairman of the subcommittee on 
sanitation, of the Advisory Council of the 
New York City Department of Health. 



OLUME XIV 



NUMBER 5 




AMERICAN MUSEUM 





THE NEW AFRICAN HALL PLANNED 
BY CARL E. AKELEY 



WHICH set§X'nlw ^lANmtoriN 

MUSEUM EXHiaKriON*lS DESCmBEp 
AND figured' in .H ISSUE 



■■•* '•■■■-''' :i, .^, 



^t ., . 



j&te- 



^EE TO MEMBERS 



TWENTY CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOAKO OF TRUSTEES 

President 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. P. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of the City of New York 
William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York 
Cabot Ward, President op the Department of Parks 
George F. Baker Henry C Frick Seth Low 

Albert S. Bickmore Madison Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Archer M. Huntington John B. Trevor 

R. Fulton Cutting Arthur Curtiss James Felix M. Warburg 

Thomas DeWitt Cuyler Walter B. James George W. Wickersham 

James Douglas A. D. Juilliard 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
Director Assistant Secretary 

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The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
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Annual Members $ 10 Fellows $ 500 

Sustaining Members (annually) 25 Patrons 1000 

Life Members 100 Associate Benefactors 10,000 

Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information 
concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of pubUc 
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Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
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The Mitla Restaurant in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open 
from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla 
room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple 
ruins at Mitla, Mexico. 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV MAY, 1914 Number 5 

CONTENTS 

Cover, "Charging Elephants " ^ Model for bronze by Carl E. Akeley 

Portraits — Eminent Men and the Museum 170 

The Honorable Joseph H. Choatb 

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and Colonel Rondon 

Dr. James Douglas of New York 

His Serene Highness Albert, Prince of Monaco 

Frontispiece, Portrait of Carl E. Akeley 174 

New African Hall Planned by Carl E. Akeley 175 

Description of African hall model by Mr. Akeley 

Editorial comment on realistic exhibition of animals in musemns, the new honor attached to 

the name "taxidermist" and some of the results the world may expect from Mr. Akeley 's 

work 

Illustrations from photographs of the model of the African hall with its groups and bas-reliefs 

and of various clay models for bronzes by Mr. Akeley 

The Dawn Man of Piltdown William K. Gregory 189 

Summary of controversial discussion regarding the celebrated fossil human remains found 
at Piltdown, Sussex 

Illustrated with photographs from the famous collection of Dr. J. Leon Williams, which is 
at present on exhibition in the Museum 

Copper Deposits in Arizona James Douglas 201 

An article of unusual interest and value on the disposition of ore bodies in Arizona and the 
history of their discovery and mining — as a preliminary to the detailed description to follow 
in the next number of the Journal, of the Copper Queen Mine model constructed at the 
Museum through the generosity of Dr. Douglas 

Ancient Pottery from Nasca, Peru Charles W. Mead 207 

Some four hundred pieces of pottery, the most beautiful so far discovered in South America, 
purchased and presented to the Museum by Mr. A. D. Juilliard 
With illustrations in sepia 



The Crocker Land Expedition 209 

Letters from Etah, the site of the winter quarters of the expedition, recounting the experi- 
ences of the winter and giving new plans for the spring 

Museum Notes 213 



Mart Ctnthia Dickerson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms : 
one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12 , 
1907, at the Post-Offlce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal, 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




Photograph by Bradley Studio, reproduced through 
courtesy of The New York Times 

THE HONORABLE JOSEPH H. CHOATE. 

DIPLOMATIST. LAWYER, SPEAKER 

> 

Mr. Choate is the only surviving representative of the founders of 
the Museum. In 1869 Mr. Choate with Mr. Charles A. Dana and Mr. 
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., drafted the constitution for the American Museum 
of Natural History. Since that early time Mr. Choate has given contin- 
ually of his means and time and, as legal adviser, especially of his intellect 
to the welfare of the institution 



170 







Plioliii/ra pli by Kiitnit Roosevelt, reproduced 
throuyli tlie courtesy of Scribner' s Magazine 
COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT WITH COLONEL RONDON 

Colonel Roosevelt has just returned from an expedition to South America. He will give his first report 
of the zoological results of this expedition before the members of the American Museum in November. 
Colonel Rondon of the Brazilian Army, who has explored western Brazil for twenty-four years in pioneering 
the way for railroads and telegraph lines, joined Colonel Roosevelt at Caceres on the Paraguay and Irendered 
the expedition invaluable services 

171 




Photograph by the Misses Selby 

DR. JAMES DOUGLAS OF NEW YORK 

Dr. Douglas, expert raining engineer and president of tlie Copper Queen Consolidated 
Mining Company, furnished scientific data for tiio construction of the Copper Queen mine 
model in the American Museum. He has also financed the construction and given It ills 
personal supervision during the past three years 



172 




Courtesy of the American Press Association 

HIS SERENE HIGHNESS ALBERT, PRINCE OF MONACO 

His Serene Highness Albert, Prince of Monaco, expert and author in 
oceanography, founder at Monaco of the largest oceanographical museixm 
in the world, addressed the members of the American Museum of Natural 
History at the time of his recent visit to America on the subject of his work 



173 





MR. CARL E. AKELEY 
Mr. Akeley has advanced the art of taxidermy until it implies to-day a combination of the 
powers of explorer, naturalist and sculptor 
174 



The American Museum Journal 



Volume XIV 



MAY. 1914 



Number 5 



THE NEW AFRICAN HALL PLANNED BY 
CARL E. AKELEY 

PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION WHICH STRIKE A REVOLUTION IN 

METHODS OF EXHIBITION AND PRESAGE THE FUTURE GREATNESS 

OF THE EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM 

With detailed description of the African Hall model constructed under the 
supervision of Mr. Akeley 



RAPID progress has been made in 
America in recent years as re- 
gards methods of reaUstie exhi- 
bition of animals in museums; witness 
the famous mammal groups in the Field 
Museum^ the cycloramic group showing 
the birds of Laysan Island in the Mu- 
seum of the University of Iowa, and the 
habitat bird groups of the American Mu- 
seum, as also in the American Museum 
the new reptile groups which show what 
can be accomplished with wax as a me- 
dium, and the wharf-pile group devel- 
oped in glass. It is unnecessary even 
to suggest comparison with the often 
crudely mounted mammals and birds 
and the discolored shapeless alcoholic 
material that made up exhibits a few 
years ago and still in both large and 
small museums here and abroad often 
meet the eyes of the visitor seeking in- 
struction in natural history. 

Mr. Carl E. Akeley when speaking 
recently before a joint meeting of the 
National Sculpture Society, the Archi- 
tectural League of New York and the 
MacDowell Club, present at the Mu- 
seum to view the model of the new 
African hall, illustrated well the need 
that existed for advance in the methods 
of animal exhibition. We quote his 
story in w^hich he humorously tells of his 



own early experience in the work of 
mounting animals: 

When I was a boy I learned taxidermy on 
my own hook. I borrowed a book that had 
cost one dollar and from that book I learned 
taxidermy up to a point where I felt justified 
in having business cards printed stating that 
I did artistic taxidermy in all its branches. 
One day armed with that card I went to the 
city of Rochester where was located the god- 
father of all museums.Ward's Natural Science 
Establishment. After walking up and down 
in front of Ward's house a number of times, 
trying to screw up my courage to go in and 
make application for a position, I finally got 
my hand upon that card and was reassured. I 
went in, presented the card to Professor Ward 
and I assure you he jumped at the opportunity 
to secure my services — at $3.50 per week. 

Thus I went to Ward's and learned to stuff 
animals. I have a theory that the first 
museum taxidermist came into existence in 
about this way: One of our dear old friends, 
an old-fashioned closet naturalist who knew 
animals only as dried skins and had been 
getting funds from some kind-hearted phi- 
lanthropist, one day under pressure from the 
philanthropist, who naturally wanted to see 
some result from all this money put into the 
hands of a scientist, sent out around the 
corner and called in an upholsterer and said, 
"Here is the skin of an animal. I want you 
to stuff this thing and make it look like a live 
animal." The upholsterer did it and kept 
on doing it until the scientist had a little 
more money given to him for work. After a 
while the upholsterer became ambitious and 

175 



THE NEW AFRICAN HALL 



177 



had an idea that these animals might be im- 
proved upon so he began to do a httle better 
work. But it took more time and cost more 
money so he lost his job. Thus it has been 
that from the very people from whom we 
expected the most encouragement in the 
beginning of our efforts, we got the least. 

I remember very well one time when an 
opportunity came to do something a little 
better. A zebra was brought into the 
Establishment. I had been studying anat- 
omy and I had learned the names of all the 
muscles and all the bones. When I saw the 
zebra I realized that here was an opportunity 
to do something good and I asked to make a 
plaster cast of the body. I had to do it in 
my own time and worked from supper until 
breakfast time, following out a few special 
experiments of my own in the process. 
Nevertheless the zebra was handed out to be 
mounted in the old way and my casts were 
thrown on the dump. 

Fortunately the story does not end 
here. Let us continue it in a quotation 
from Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn's 
introduction of Mr. Akeley before these 
societies of artists : 

Now all this is changed and Mr. Akeley is 
the leader of a new movement. He is the 
first sculptor in this art, the first taxidermist 
to approach the art from the standpoint of a 
sculptor instead of from the standpoint of 
simply filling out the skin, and his great 
contribution, that which I am sure will make 
his name endure, is that every one of his 
animals is first modeled as if the model were 
to be the completed thing itself. On the 
surface of the model he succeeds in expressing 
the muscles, tendons and bones, just as they 
appear in the living animal. Then he thins 
the skin down to the utmost possible degree 
of fineness and appUes it to this piece of 
finished sculpture so that the skin here, as in 
the case of the living animal, is drawn down 
over the beautifully modeled body. 

Another great feature of Mr. Akeley's work, 
which makes him a leader in the new move- 
ment, is that through his courage as an 
explorer he has been out and studied his 
types in the wild, often at very great personal 
risk. The animal of the wild is entirely 
different from the museum or menagerie 
animal. The muscles, the vitahty make the 
whole aspect something quite different. It 



is the wild animal that Mr. Akeley will put 
into the new African hall. 

What has been done so far however 
to improve museum exhibition is but a 
small beginning of what can be and 
should be done, especially in the mu- 
seums of large cities where the educa- 
tional need is greatest. Any person who 
has studied the matter or who is in- 
terested either as artist or scientist, will 
agree to this as he walks through the 
exhibition halls of any of the world's 
public natural history museums. In 
few can there be found a single hall 
whose plan reveals a master mind or 
correlation in the work of several minds. 
There are chances for the architecture 
to be out of harmony with the sub- 
ject or character of the exhibits, for the 
lighting to be unfortunately managed. 
Owing to an institution's inheritance of 
old material and frequent changes of ad- 
ministration, the exhibits may be hetero- 
geneous, a little done here by one man 
with one aim, a little yonder by another 
with a different aim; they are no doubt 
crowded and with small appearance of 
attractiveness. The cases may be out 
of keeping with the exhibits, perhaps 
even ranging through many styles and 
sizes. All this in addition to the fact 
that the animals were prepared for ex- 
hibition by some method which gives no 
illusion of life. 

Mr. Akeley stands foremost among 
museum men interested in museum exhi- 
bition — an African explorer, naturalist 
and sculptor, and the title he modestly 
claims, "taxidermist" — a man with 
such capacity for keen observation of 
animals and such genius in a true repre- 
sentation of them that he honors the old 
term taxidermist until whatever lowly 
origin the word may have had, it is 
made now to imply a combination of the 
powers of explorer, naturalist and sculp- 
tor. By thus remaining loyal to the 




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180 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



old name and continuing to give his 
services in his old profession, Mr. 
Akeley has set a new standard for all 
workers in museum preparation, more- 
over making it possible that men of great 
ability shall come into the ranks and 
impossible for men of poor ability to 
rise there. This in itself, striking as it 
does at the foundation for improvement, 
is bound to influence museums in the 
future. Fortunately however and yield- 
ing more immediate and definite results 
than this, Mr. Akeley has crystallized 
into workable plans the ideas gained 
through his study of museum exhibition. 
These were largely perfected some years 
ago for the Field Museum, Chicago, 
but are now offered in more matured 
form to the American Museum in the 
shape of an African hall for the new 
wing under construction. 

During the past year working in one 
of the old North American mammal 
halls of the second floor of the Museum, 
rechristened the "elephant studio," 
Mr. Akeley has supervised the con- 
struction of a very beautiful model of 
the African hall. The following is his 
own description of the hall as portrayed 
by the model : 

This new hall will be devoted entirely to 
Africa — to African scenes and African ani- 
mals and African natives in their relation to 
the animals. The hall proper will have a 
floor measurement of sixty by one hundred 
and fifty-two feet and a height of seventeen 
feet to the gallery at the sides and thirty feet 
to the ceiling over the center. The open 
space of this hall will be encroached upon 
only at the corners by the elevators, that is 
the actual open floor space without columns 
or any obstruction whatever will be sixty by 
one hundred and sixteen feet. In the center 
of this large hall will stand a group of four 
African elephants treated in statuesque 
fashion, mounted on a four-foot base with no 
covering of glass. It is suitable that the 
elephant should dominate this hall since it is 
typical of Africa, is the largest land mammal 



in the world to-day and one of the most 
splendid of all animals of past or present. 

As a result of late developments in the 
technique of taxidermy we are able to treat 
these pachyderms so that they will not suffer 
because of lack of protection under glass. 
Changing atmospheric conditions will have 
no effect upon them and they can receive 
essentially the care given to bronzes. 

The elephant group will be flanked at one 
end by a group of black rhinos, a bull at one 
side, a cow and calf at the other, and at the 
other end by a similar group of white rhinos, 
the rhino groups being prepared for the same 
exposure as the elephant group. The ele- 
phants and the rhinos, with the addition of 
two fountains, one at either end facing the 
entrances of the hall and consisting each of a 
single native figure, life-size in bronze, will 
constitute the only installation in this hall 
proper. 

If we stand in this hall where are the 
elephants and rhinos and look to right and 
left out through what might seem the win- 
dows of the hall, we shall see typical African 
scenes, for the groups of the African hall will 
surround the main floor in a sort of annex 
which will not encroach upon the measure- 
ments of the hall proper. These animal 
groups with panoramic backgrounds ^ will be 
twenty in number on the main floor, with 
twenty more of the same type although some- 
what smaller in dimensions, in the gallery. 

The forty canvases for the groups will be 
painted by the best artists available and from 
studies made in Africa, and will give a com- 
prehensive idea of the topography of Africa 
from the Mediterranean on the north to the 
Tableland Mountain at Cape Town and from 
the east coast to the west coast. 

The foregrounds of the groups will combine 
to represent in the most comprehensive way 
the animal life of the continent. They will be 
composite — that is, as many species will be 
associated in each of the groups as is legiti- 
mate with scientific fact. For example one 
of the large corner groups will represent a 

• The paintings malcing the backgrounds of 

these forty groups will range in size as follows: 

In the gallery, canvas measurement 16 feet 

by 28 feet for groups 13 feet in width by "\ 

feet in depth 
On the main floor, canvas measurement 30 

feet by 70 feet for the four large corner 

groups, 24 by 24 feet 
Also on the main floor, canvas measurement 

25 feet by 42 feet for sixteen groups each 

15 by 13 feet 




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182 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



scene on the equatorial river Tana, showing 
perhaps all told twelve species in their natural 
surroundings with stories of the animals and 
a correct representation of the flora. In the 
foreground on a sandbar in the river will be 
a group of hippos; across the stream and 
merging into the painted background, a 
group of impalla come down to water; in the 
trees and on the sandbars of the farther bank 
two species of monkeys common to the region; 
a crocodile and turtles basking in the sun 
near the hippos and a few characteristic birds 
in the trees. 

Another of these large corner groups will 
be a scene of the plains, a rock kopje with 
characteristic animals such as the kilpspringer, 
hyrax, Chanler's reedbuck and baboons on 



the rocks. The background will lead off 
across the plain showing a herd of plains ani- 
mals — and the adjoining group will continue 
the story showing more of the species of the 
plains. The third of the large corner groups 
will represent a Congo forest scene with the 
okapi and chimpanzee perhaps, and such 
animals as may be legitimately associated 
with the okapi. The fourth group is to be a 
desert scene, a water hole with a giraffe 
drinking and other animals standing by, 
awaiting their turn. 

In these four corner groups we can present 
the four important physical features of 
African game country and they will be supple- 
mented of course by the scenes in the thirty- 
six other groups. The large groups however, 




Sketch model of the hippopotamus group, one of the lour large corner groups on the main floor. 
A scene on the Tana River, showing a hippopotamu.s family on a rock In the center of the river and an 
antelope drinking on the oppo.site shore. There will be several other species of mammals and birds 
shown as accessories in this group 



THE NEW AFRICAN HALL 



183 



give opportunity for particularly striking 
scenic effects. 

Lack of care in museum exhibition has 
come about in part at least because of the 
lack of permanence in the specimens exhibited. 
Now that we have reached a point in the 
development of taxidermy technique where 
we can say without reservation that our 
preparations are permanent, permanent to 
a degree only dreamed of up to within a 
couple of years, we feel justified in taking 
extreme measures to insure the future care 
and preservation of these preparations. 
The elephants and rhinos can be made as 
permanent as bronze for endurance under all 
conditions, but the other animal groups with 



rays of Hght. The space between these two 
skylights will be a cooling space — that is, 
air will circulate through this space, modify- 
ing the heat of the summer sun or the cold 
of winter. Each group will be in fact within 
an individual compartment, and allowed to 
"breathe" only the air of the alleyway, which 
is filtered and dried and kept at a uniform 
temperatuie throughout the year. The day- 
light admitted through the skylight is under 
automatic control so that after the amount of 
lighting of an individual group has been de- 
finitely determined upon, it is kept at the 
proper amount by automatically controlled 
shutters which open and close with the 
changing Hght, maintaining a uniform light 




Lion and Buffalo — A model for bronze by Carl E. Akeley 



their backgrounds and with accessories 
necessarily made largely of wax, cannot be 
thus exposed. That they shall not suffer 
from excessive light and from changing 
atmospheric conditions, they will be placed 
in these two great alleyways on either side of 
but practically outside the hall, in fact 
hermetically sealed off from the hall proper 
and also from the outside atmosphere. Thus 
each group will be absolutely protected from 
changes in temperature and humidity. 

The lighting of the groups will be a combi- 
nation of daylight and artificial light. Day- 
light will be admitted through a skylight 
beneath which a second skylight will serve as 
a ray-filter to cut out the actinic or fading 



on the group under all conditions. 

The amount of light required on these 
groups will be relatively small because of the 
fact that they are to be viewed from a rela- 
tively dark central hall. We shall be looking 
from the hall into the source of light rather 
than from the source of light outward. Also 
reflections can be reduced to a minimum and 
practically eliminated, owing to the fact that 
the groups are the source of illumination, by 
having the glass in the front of the case in- 
clined at such an angle that it reflects only 
the dark floor of the hall. The effect as we 
pass through this hall will be that of looking 
out through open windows into an African 
out of doors. 




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186 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 




Plan of hall showing main floor and gallery of African hall 



In addition to the forty groups twenty-four 
bas-relief panels in bronze (six by eleven 
feet each) will be placed in a frieze just above 
the floor groups and along the balcony to 
form a series around the entire lower floor, 
becoming a part of the architectural decora- 
tion of the hall. The sculpture of each panel 
will tell the story of some native tribe and its 
relations to the animal life shown in the 
groups. 

For instance, one will show a Dorobo 
family, the man skinning a dead antelope 
that he has brought in from the forest to 
his hut, where are his wife and babies and 
two hunting dogs which represent their only 
domestic animals. A further interest in 
animal life will be revealed in the presence 
of the dead antelope as it is a source of 
food supply, for these are people that live 
entirely by hunting. Another panel may 
Bhow a group in Somaliland with camels, 
sheep, goats, cattle and ponies at a water- 
hole, the interest in animal life being practi- 
cally only in domestic animals. Still another 
panel completing the Somali story will 
represent a group of Midgans in some 
characteristic hunting scene. While each of 
these panels is to be a careful and scientifi- 
cally accurate study of the people and 
their customs, accurate in detail as to 
clothing, ornaments and weapons, the theme 
running through the whole series will be 



the relationship of the people to the animal 
life. 

Thus the American Museum takes the 
important step of putting this compre- 
hensive piece of work into the hands of 
one man and he a man who has proved 
his pecuHar abiUty. Mr. Akeley is will- 
ing to sacrifice other interests for the 
five years necessary for the well launch- 
ing of the plan. He will draw into the 
work the best " taxidermists," as well as 
sculptors and artists. He will in fact 
start a "taxidermy studio" which during 
these five years will be not only a place 
where groups for the African hall shall be 
prepared but what is more important, 
will also prove a training-ground for 
young men of ability and marked apti- 
tude for the work. We can but agree 
that Mr. Akeley has put his finger upon 
the crucial difficulty in Museum exhibi- 
tion when he says, "After all is said and 
done such work depends on just a few 
men who can carry it out. To find people 
who can do the work, men of fit training 
and sense to carry it to the finish, that 
is the difficult matter." 



THE NEW AFRICAN HALL 



187 



It is impossible for us to estimate the 
vast influence that Mr. Akeley's new 
"taxidermy studio" will have on mu- 
seum installation. It will achieve a direct 
influence in presenting to the world such 
an example as the African hall will be 
when embodied forth in its full dimen- 
sions — a place of large and quiet beauty, 
with long unobstructed views, where one 



may sit and rest while he learns of the 
life of Africa. There is certain to come 
also a stimulated enthusiasm for work 
in museum exhibition and results con- 
tinually approaching more and more 
near the ideal — that is, absolute scien- 
tific truth giving an illusion of the life 
itself, combined with great beauty and 
with permanence. M. c. D. 




FIR^T FLOOR 



Diagram of a section of the corridor containing main floor and gallery groups 

A. Floor of group space, sunk four feet below the level of hall floor to permit of various 
elevations of foregroimd in group; 

B. Floor of gallery group case, two feet below the level of gallery floor; 

C. Skylight; ^^* I. Space occupied by bronze panels above 

D. Ray Alter. Colored glass to cut out the floor groups; 



actinic rays of daylight ; 

E. Glass roof of gallery group case; 

F. Glass roof of main floor group case; 

G. Glass in front of gallery case set at angle 
to cut out reflections ; 

//. Glass in main floor case; 



J. Space above gallery groups to be used 
for artiflcial lighting purposes; 

K. Ventilated space between skylight and 
ray filter; 

L. Plane of painted background. 




THE PILTDOWN MAN IN LIFE 
Fig. 1. A restoration by Professor J. H. McGregor 



188 



THE DAWN MAN OF PILTDOWN, ENGLAND 
By ^Villiam King Gregory 



SEVERAL years ago an English geol- 
ogist, Charles Dawson, F. S. A., 
F. G. S., was walking along a 
farm road close to Piltdown Common, 
Fletching, Sussex, when he noticed that 
the road had been mended with some 
peculiar brown flints not usual in the 
district. On inquiry, he relates,^ he was 

1 Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. vol. 69, pp. 117-144 
Paper read Dec. 18, 1912. 

(Note: The now cslebratsd fossil human re- 
mains foimd at Piltdown, in Sussex, continue to 
excite widespread discussion and interest not only 
in scientific circles but also in the public press both 
here and abroad. The following summary has 
been made after a patient and impartial study of 
this still controversial subject. The Dawn Man 
is illustrated by means of casts and models which 
are on exhibition in this Museum, in the loan 
collection of Dr. J. Leon Williams.] 



astonished to learn that the flints were 
dug from a gravel-bed on a certain farm, 
and shortly afterward he visited the 
place, where two laborers were at work 
digging the gravel for small repairs to 
the roads. As this excavation was 
situated about four miles north of the 
limit where the occurrence of flints 
overlying the Wealden strata is recorded, 
Mr. Dawson was much interested, and 
made a close examination of the bed. 
"I asked the workmen," he says, "if 
they had found bones or other fossils 
there. As they did not appear to have 
noticed anything of the sort, I urged 
them to preserve anything that they 
might find . Upon one of my subsequent 




Fig. 2. Model of the Piltdown skull as reconstructed by Dr. Smith Woodward. Seen from the 
left side; one-half natural size. Williams Collection, American Museum 

The dark areas represent the portions preserved in the original fossil; the light areas are restored. 
The lower jaw (except the front part) is restored from the opposite side 189 



190 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



visits to the [gravel] pit, one of the men 
lianded to me a small portion of an 
iinusually thick human parietal bone. 
I immediately made a search, but could 
find nothing more, nor had the men 
noticed anything else. The bed is full 
of tabular pieces of iron-stone closely 
resembling this piece of skull in color 
and thickness; and, although I made 
many subsequent searches, I could not 
hear of any further find nor discover 
anything — in fact, the bed seemed to 
be quite unfossiliferous." But incited 
by the skull fragment already obtained, 
Mr. Dawson renewed the search in the 
autumn of 1911, when he was rewarded 
for his persistence by picking up among 
the rain-washed spoil-heaps of the gravel- 
pit, another and larger piece belonging 
to the frontal region of the same skull. 
" As I had examined a cast of the Heidel- 
berg jaw," he continues, " it occurred to 
me that the proportions of the skull were 
similar to those of that specimen. I 
accordingly took it to Dr. A. Smith 
Woodward at the British Museum 
[Natural History] for comparison and 
determination. He was immediately im- 
pressed with the importance of the dis- 
covery, and we decided to employ 
labor and to make a systematic search 
among the spoil-heaps and gravel, as 
soon as the floods had abated; for the 
gravel-pit is more or less under water 
during five or six months of the year. 
We accordingly gave up as much time 
as we could spare since last spring (1912), 
and completely turned over and sifted 
what spoil-material remained; we also 
dug up and sifted such portions of the 
gravel as had been left undisturbed by 
the workmen. . . .Apparently the whole 
or greater portion of the human skull 
had been shattered by the workmen, 
who had thrown away the pieces un- 
noticed. Of these we recovered from 
the spoil-heaps as many fragments as 



possible. In a somewhat deeper de- 
pression of the undisturbed gravel I 
found the right half of a human mandible. 
So far as I could judge, guiding myself 
by the position of a tree three or four 
yards away, the spot was identical with 
that upon which the men were at work 
when the first portion of the cranium 
was found several years ago. Dr. 
Woodward also dug up a small portion 
of the occipital bone of the skull from 
within a yard of the point where the jaw 
was discovered, and at precisely the 
same level. The jaw appeared to have 
been broken at the symphysis, and 
abraded, perhaps when it lay fixed in the 
gravel, and before its complete deposi- 
tion. The fragments of the cranium 
show little or no sign of rolling or other 
abrasion, save an incision at the back 
of the parietal, probably caused by a 
workman's pick.'" 

Further exploration during 1913 re- 
sulted in the finding, by Father P. 
Teilhard de Chardin, S. J., of an apelike 
canine tooth in the dark bed of the 
gravel, the same stratum which had 
yielded the skull and the mandible. 
The nasal bones were also found in the 
same bed. 

Geological Age of the Piltdown Man 

The question of the geological age of 
these now celebrated specimens is nat- 
urally of first importance. It has been 
suspected by some that geologically 
they are not old at all; that they may 
even represent a deliberate hoax, a ne- 
gro or Australian skull and a broken ape- 
jaw, artificially fossilized and "planted" 
in the gravel-bed, to fool the scientists. 
Against this suggestion tell the whole 
circumstances t)f the discovery as above 

I "This wretched pickaxe added yet another 
obstacle. It cut off the fore-part of the jaw, 
bearing the front cheek-teeth, the 'eye' teetli, or 
canines, and the cutting-teeth." W. P. Pycraft 



THE DAWN MAN OF PILTDOWN 



191 



related. None of the experts who have 
scrutinized the specimens and the gravel- 
pit and its surroundings has doubted 
the genuineness of the discovery. All 
agree that the Dawn Man dates at the 
very latest from the Old Stone Age, 
and for the following reasons: 

1 — The dark stratum which yielded 
the human remains also contained a 
number of mammalian fossils, repre- 
senting a primitive elephant {Stegodon), 
a mastodon {Mastodon arvernensis) , a 
rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, a horse 
and a beaver. The mastodon and the 
stegodon belonged to species which were 
characteristic of the Pliocene epoch and 
on that account Professor Keith at first 
regarded the human remains as equally 
old; but Dr. Smith Woodward and Mr. 
Dawson maintained that the mastodon 
and rhinoceros teeth had been washed 
into the gravel bed from an older forma- 
tion, because they had been rolled and 
were water-worn. The hippopotamus 
and the beaver may be of either Upper 
Pliocene or Pleistocene age. A frag- 
mentary fossil antler of a red deer was 
found near by, but its association with 
the other remains is doubted. 

2 — "Eoliths," or irregularly fractured 
flints, were also found in and around 
the gravel-pit. 

3 — One flint implement of Old Stone 
Age type was discovered in situ in the 
bed which lies immediately above the 
Dawn Man stratum. (SeealsoFig.il.) 

In brief, the discoverers of the Dawn 
Man finally refer his remains to the 
Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age),^ but the 
more precise date is not settled. 

Dr. Smith Woodward's reconstruc- 
tion OF THE SKULL AND JAW 

The broken pieces of the Piltdown 

» Supplementary Note on the Discovery of a 
Palaeolithic Human Skull and Mandible at Pilt- 
down (Sussex). Proc. Geol. Soc, London, vol. 
Ixx, 1914, pp. 82-93. 



skull were compared by Dr. Smith 
Woodward with various human types 
both prehistoric and modern, and under 
his direction the pieces were assembled 
as far as possible in their natural posi- 
tions and the missing parts were hypo- 
thetically restored in clay. As shown 
in this reconstruction (Page 189) these 
missing parts (indicated by the white 
areas) include the front part of the lower 
jaw, the lower incisors, canines and 
premolars, all the upper teeth and the 
face. Since that time the nasal bones 
and one canine tooth have been found. 
The most extraordinary, unexpected 
feature of the Piltdown man, as thus 
reconstructed, is that an essentially 
human brain case, with a well-rounded 
forehead and with thoroughly human 
temporal and occipital regions, is com- 
bined with an essentially apelike lower 
jaw, with apelike teeth and with an 
apelike face (the latter hypothetical). 

Did THE APELIKE JAW BELONG WITH THE 
HUMAN BRAIN-CASE? 

Doubts and criticisms were raised at 
once. Doubt as to the association of 
the lower jaw with the skull was ex- 
pressed by several authorities (Sir Ray 
Lankester, Professor Waterson and Pro- 
fessor Schwalbe) and is still entertained 
by many conservative anatomists. Did 
this ape jaw really belong with the 
human brain-case? Could an ape jaw 
articulate with a human jaw-socket? 

Briefly summarized the principal items 
of evidence bearing on this question are 
as follows: 

1 — The jaw was found in the same 
stratum which had yielded the skull, 
and within a yard of the exact spot 
where a piece of the occipital bone was 
found. Subsequently the nasal bones 
and a canine tooth were found in the 
same place. 




Fig. 3. The PllUiown lower jaw (S) from a cast in the Williams Collection, 
compared with the jaws of a female orang-utan (A) and of a modern man (negro) (C). 
External views, thrcnvfourths of the natural size. Abbreviations: ah. mi, socket for 
third lower molar; n. r., ascending ramus: f, canine: r. i., central inci.sor; con., con- 
dyle; I. i., lateral incisor; mi. m2, mj, first, second, third lower molars;pi . pi, first and 
second, premolars (equivalent to the third and fourth premolars of lower mammals) 
192 




Fig. 4. Lower jaw bones of the Piltdown man, of ? female orang-utan and of a 
modern negro, viewed from tlie inner side. Abbreviations as in Fig. 3; also, ah. c. i., 
alveolus for central incisor; ch., bony chin; g. <., genial tubercle; m. I., mental ledge; 
I. r.. ridge in area of temporal muscle; s, section through symphysis 



193 



194 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



2 — The jaw and skull are fossilized 
in the same manner and degree. 

3 — They were found in an ancient 
gravel-bed containing the debris of older 
deposits. "As the skull and lower jaw 
are very little water-worn, they would 
not have occurred in close association 
if they had been transported far from 



cene Age have been discovered in the 
glacial and interglacial deposits of Eng- 
land and the Continent, but in this 
highly varied fauna the anthropoid apes 
have always been conspicuously absent, 
and there is no reliable evidence that 
any of the race ever lived in England 
during the Pleistocene Epoch. 





Fig. 5. The same three specimens of Figs. 3 and 4, viewed from above. Abbreviations as in pre- 
vious flgures; also, /. 2, 3, 4, 5, cusps of the lower molars; m. p., median plane; *, brolsen edge 



the spot at which they were originally 
entombed" (Smith Woodward). 

4 — The suggestion that while the 
brain-case was human, the lower jaw 
belonged to another creature, an ape, 
is not in harmony with what is already 
known of the fauna and climate of Eu- 
rope during Pleistocene times. Thou- 
sands of mammalian remains of Pleisto- 



5 — Fossil remains of anthropoids of 
any age have hitherto been exceedingly 
rare, and the chances that a jaw of a 
hitherto unknown type of anthropoid ape 
should be washed into the same gravel- 
bed with a human skull of conformable 
size, and that both should become min- 
eralized in the same manner and degree, 
may be regarded as extremely small. 



THE DAWN MAN OF PILTDOWN 



195 




6 — More direct evidence that the lower 
jaw in spite of its apehke features is really 
that of a human being is furnished by 
the measurements 
given by Dr. Smith 
Woodward {op. cit., 
p. 130). These 
measurements are 
on the whole nearer 
to those obtained 
from early human 
jaws than to those 
of full-grown apes. 

7 — The lower mo- 
lars approach those 
of apes in their rela- 
tive narrowness and 
in the large size of 
the third lower mo- 
lar (as indicated by 
its alveolus), but in 
their flattened worn 
surfaces with very 
thick enamel they 
recall human rather 
than simian teeth. 

8 — The condyles, 
or articular surfaces, 
of the Piltdown jaw 
as compared with 
those of the great 
apes were more slen- 
der, less expanded 
transversely, and 
supported by more 
slender pillars of 
bone. In this fea- 
ture the Piltdown 
jaw is more like the 
average human type, 
and this fact tends 
to remove the sup- 
posed difficulty in 
fitting this, in many 
ways apelike jaw on 
to a human glenoid, 
or upper jaw socket. 



9 — Doubts have also been expressed 
as to the association of the remarkably 
apelike canine with the other Piltdown 







Fig. 6. Canine tooth (cast) of the Piltdown man (A) in comparison 
with the left upper (B) and right lower (C) canines of a female orang. 
Natural size. The lower canine is turned upside down to facilitate com- 
parison with the others. In A the tip of the root is restored h 
A^, Bi, C. Seen from the outer or labial side "^ 
A^, B^, C2. Seen from the inner or lingual side, w, worn surface 
A^, B', C. Seen from the front, or antero-internally 






Fig. 7. Temporal bones of the Piltdown man (.4), of a negro (B), and of a female orang-utan_(C). 
Two-thirds natural size 

ar. c, articular eminence (for lower jaw) ; c. c, carotid canal; e. a. m., opening leading to middle ear; 
g. s., glenoid socket (for lower jaw); vet., bone surrounding internal ear; st., pit for styloid process; 
t. p., tympanic plate; z, root of zygomatic arch 



remains. The canine, which was dis- 
covered by Father Teilhard in the place 
where the other remains came from, was 
identified by Dr. Smith Woodward as 
belonging in the right side of the lower 
jaw; but as shown in figure 6, by com- 
parison with the upper and lower canines 
of a female orang, its resemblances are 
on the whole closer to the left upper 
canine, as observed by Mr. A. E. 




Fig. H. Internal cast of the Piltdown skull. Tlie fully shaded 
part« are represented in the original, the rest is restored. After 
Elliot Smith. The branching system represents the grooves for the 
meningeal arteries which are on the inner surface of the brain-case 

196 



Anderson. If it be an upper canine its 
wearing surface is such that the first 
lower bicuspid which occluded with it 
must have been elongate and prominent 
and much more anthropoid than human 
in shape. Taken in connection with 
the total lack of a chin, and with the 
straightness of the molar tooth rows, this 
indicates that the lower part of the 
face and the dentition were even 
more apelike than in Dr. Smith Wood- 
reconstruction. If the canine 
!m upper one, this would tend 
o confirm the association of 
the jaw with the skull, in 
the opinion of American 
Museum collectors. 

While perhaps not con- 
clusive the foregoing con- 
siderations tend strongly 
to show that all the Pri- 
mate remains so far dis- 
covered at Piltdown be- 
longed to one individual, 
which is represented by 
the greater portion of the 
brain-case, by the nasal 
bones, by the left upper 



THE DAWN MAN OF PILTDOWN 



197 



canine tooth and by the imperfect right 
half of the lower jaw, the remaining pieces 



presumably having been destroyed by 
the workmen in taking out the gravel. 



f^ 5? 1 -^ ^ 


/I 111 \.\ 

/ 1 ^^^^^^^^^''^^^m'- N \ 


/ 1 ^ 


f'" ■'^■■■'"■■^'^''^^ m"'^" 




IiP^T|T\^ ".^ ^ , 


, Jx^m&lf J"^'^ N^ /'TwviPfBDiiiai^ 


\ ■/ M^ [ ^ ' ■ ■ ' '''j|'--'' 


-r' — ' — 50 ■■'- "■-■'■■' « ' ' io 





Fig. 9. Projections of the brain-case as seen 
from the rear, as reconstructed by Professors 
Smith Woodward {A), Elliot Smith (fi), and 
Keith (C) 



Did the Piltdown man have a very 
large brain case? 

We come now to the most contro- 
versial part of the whole subject. Did 
the Piltdown man have a small brain- 
case as in Dr. Smith Woodward's re- 
construction (Fig. 9 A), or a very large 
one as in Professor Keith's reconstruc- 
tion (Fig. 9 C), or one of intermediate 
type as in the drawing published by 
Professor Elliot Smith (Fig. 9 B)? Un- 
fortunately several pieces of critical 
importance are missing from the middle 
of the skull-top and this has made 
possible the markedly different results 
of Smith Woodward and Keith. For if 
the remaining pieces of the skull-top are 
placed close together as by Dr. Wood- 
ward, the brain will be a very small one, 
estimated at 1070 cubic centimeters 
capacity, while if these same pieces be 
tilted upward and moved further apart 
as by Professor Keith, the brain capacity 
will be as large as in many modern men, 
namely 1500 cubic centimeters. The 
subject is an exceedingly difficult one, 
as the writer has learned to his cost, 
after long efforts to assemble the casts 
of the separate pieces in their natural 
positions. It may be briefly stated 
that the writer inclines to the recon- 
struction offered by Dr. Elliot Smith 
(Fig. 9, C) which avoids the extreme 
asymmetry of the opposite halves of the 
brain-case noticeable in Dr. Woodward's 
reconstruction, and gives more space at 
the top for the ends of the meningeal 
vessels. Dr. Elliot Smith has also dis- 
covered certain marks on the inner sur- 
face of the frontal bone which appear to 
settle the vexed question of the location 
of the median plane. 



198 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The Piltdown man as one of the 
"Missing Links" 

As stated above, the temporal bone 
ard its mastoid process, the back of the 
head and the whole brain-case, as well 
as the brain cast, are human in character, 
although of low type, while the lower 
jaw and dentition are prevailingly 
simian. And while this regional dis- 
tribution of human and simian charac- 
ters was unexpected and in a way un- 
precedented, it means, as Professor 
Elliot Smith has noted, that the erect 
pose of the body, the freeing of the 
hands from locomotive functions, and 
the human development of the brain 
were associated in the Piltdown man 



with a more conservative or simian 
structure of the dentition and jaw. 

Whether or not the Piltdown man 
could talk is an open question. Dr. 
James Robinson has pointed out that in 
modern man the genioglossus muscle, the 
principal muscle of the tongue, is 
differentiated into many more or less 
separate strands, each with its own nerve 
supply and that this arrangement per- 
mits the extremely rapid and delicately 
coordinated movements of the tongue 
in speaking, whereas in the apes this 
muscle is much smaller and less differ- 
entiated. In modern man the muscle 
is attached to two little tubercles on the 
inner side of the chin, known as the genial 
tubercles (Fig. 6, g. /.). In the Piltdown 




Fig. 10. A. Young chimpanzee skull 

B. Piltdown skull 

C. Adult male chimpanzee 

D. The La-Chapelle-aux-8alnt8 skull (Neanderthal race). 



After Smith Woodward 



THE DAWN MAN OF PILTDOWN 



199 



man, as in the apes, these tubercles are 
absent and the tongue rests below upon 
a shelf of bone. Nevertheless it may not 
therefore be assumed that the Piltdown 
man was entirely speechless. The brain 
cast shows in the temporal region (Fig. 
8) an elliptical swelling (T) which fore- 
shadows a certain greatly expanded 
center in the modern brain, a center 
"which recent clinical research leads 
us to associate with the power of spon- 
taneous elaboration of speech and the 
ability to recall names" (Elliot Smith). 

Evolutionary significance of the 
Piltdown race 

Assuming that the jaw really belonged 
with the brain-case. Dr. Woodward very 
properly erected a new genus and species 
Eoanthropus dawsoni for the reception 
of this strange creature. He pointed 
out also that the rounded forehead with 
little or no brow ridges is characteristic 
of young apes (Fig. 10, A) while the 
flattened forehead with projecting brow 
ridges is characteristic of adult apes 
(Fig. 10, C) and also of the prehistoric 
Neanderthal race of man (Fig. 10, D); 
he therefore suggests that the still un- 
discovered mid-Tertiary apes which 
gave rise on the one hand to the various 
species of mankind and on the other to 
the existing anthropoids probably had 
rounded foreheads and a relatively short 
face. 

Professor Keith's widely published 
but very questionable reconstruction 
showing the Piltdown man with a 
highly modernized brain-case has given 
opportunity to that part of the public 
which dislikes the idea of man's evo- 
lution from lower animals, to express 
the opinion that " the Darwinian theory 
is exploded." By palaeontologists and 
comparative anatomists however, the 
evidence for man's cousinship with the 



anthropoid apes is regarded as no longer 
an hypothesis but an established fact. 

The proof of the ascent of man from 
certain still undiscovered mid-Tertiary 
primitive apes does not rest largely upon 
the scant fossil remains of extinct races 
of men and of apes. It does rest upon 
the convergence of many lines of evi- 
dence offered by the embryology, anat- 
omy and fossil history of numerous 
races of animals. To mention only a 
single line of evidence, the adult anat- 
omy of man and of the anthropoid apes 
is extraordinarily similar not only in 
general plan throughout, but in thou- 
sands of minute details in every part of 
the body. By a detailed comparison of 
the skulls of man, anthropoid apes, and 
Old World monkeys and other mammals 
one sees directly that the human skull 
is merely a special modification of the 
primitive anthropoid type, with the 
brain-case larger, the face shorter, the 
dentition weaker; but everywhere the 
fundamental architecture is the same. 
For example consider the region of the 
under side of the temporal bone in man 
and in the anthropoids (Fig. 7); here 
are precisely homologous parts through- 
out, the same processes and ridges, the 
same canal for the internal carotid 
artery, the same styloid pit for the 
attachment of the hyoid bone and so 
forth. And so it is everywhere, through- 
out the skull and the entire skeleton, 
throughout the marvelously intricate 
architecture of the brain, spinal cord, and 
musculature, in all the vascular, respira- 
tory, digestive and reproductive organs; 
so that no matter how long one continues 
the comparison, new similarities are con- 
stantly being revealed. 

Palaeontologists and comparative anat- 
omists likewise recognize and value the 
differences between men and apes. They 
realize that even the lowest existing 
races of mankind are extremely superior 



200 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



to apes in mentality, in power of 
speech and in ability to use the hand 
as an organ of the will and intelligence. 
But they also believe that all these 
higher faculties, marvelous as they are, 
find their beginnings in the psychic and 
physical life of the apes, that the key to 
the mental and structural adaptations of 
mankind is to be found in the Primates 
alone among mammals. 

Such being the general viewpoint of 
palaeontologists and comparative anato- 



mists, it need hardly be said that, to 
them, the Piltdown man, far from dis- 
proving the "Darwinian theory," is 
indeed a sort of "man in the making." 
He is one of the innumerable experiments 
made in Nature's vast laboratory, an 
early branch of the prehuman stock 
which had achieved a low human stage 
of brain and brain-case, but which in 
face and dentition still bore unmistakable 
traces of derivation from large-brained, 
primitive anthropoid apes. 




O 



' ^ W 






c57 









CO--. 



<>E^ • 



^^53 






<; 




Fio, 11. Diagram of section of gravel-bed at Piltdown. After Dawson 

;. Surface soil, witli flints. Thiclcness = 1 foot 

i. Pale-yellow sandy loam with gravel and flints. One Palaeolithic worked flint was found 
In the middle of this bed. Thickness = 2 feet, 6 inches 

5. Dark-brown gravel, with flints. Pliocene rolled fossils and Eoarithropus remains, boaver 
tooth, "eoliths " and one worked flint. 18 inches 

4- Pale yellow clay and sand. 8 inches 

B. Undisturbed strata of Wealden age 



COPPER DEPOSITS IN ARIZONA 

AVITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MINING OPERATIONS IN THAT REGION 
AND SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE COPPER QUEEN MINING COMPANY 

By James Douglas 

Dr. James Douglas of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, who has such large 
field knowledge regarding the copper deposits of Arizona is a great benefactor of the American Museum 
and has shown his interest in the institution not only in financing but also in providing data and giving 
personal supervision to the construction of the most elaborate mine model in any of the world's museums 
This model has been completed recently after three years of work on the part of experts and is on exhi 
bition in the hall of geology. The detailed description of the model, written by Dr. E. O. Hovey, 
has been necessarily deferred until the next issue of the Journal. — The Editor. 



UP to the year 1845 the production 
of copper in the United States 
came from the Appalachian 
Range. Comparatively small quantities 
were mined in North Carolina, Virginia, 
and Vermont. Subsequent to that date 
the statistics of production illustrate 
the shifting of the geographical centers 
of most active mining. In 1856 Michi- 
gan's proportion stood at ninety-one 
per cent of the total; by 1869 it had 
risen to ninety-five per cent, but in 
1882 it dropped to sixty-two per cent; 
and since then it has steadily declined 
until now it occupies third place in the 
country's list of producing states — 
the first being Arizona, with thirty-three 
per cent of the total, second Montana, 
with twenty-three per cent, and Michi- 
gan third, with twelve per cent. 

The sudden decline in the preeminence 
of the Lake Region of Michigan marks 
the entrance of the Rocky Mountain 
Region into the arena of the copper in- 
dustry through the building of the trans- 
continental railroads. It was not until 
the Union and Central Pacific gave an 
outlet to the Butte mines over a long 
wagon haul to Corinne and until the 
Southern Pacific had reached Benson, 
Arizona, that these two prominent re- 
gions appeared almost simultaneously in 
the Statistical Tables as producers. The 



first furnaces erected in Butte, at the 
Williams branch of the Argo Smelting 
Works, were the first shippers of rich 
argentiferous copper matte and the com- 
mencement of the steady flow of copper 
by rail from Arizona was in the fall of 
1880. Previous to that, as early as the 
sixties, copper ore had been shipped 
from the Planet Mines via the Colorado 
River to California, and thence reshipped 
to England ; but years before the South- 
ern Pacific had traversed the territory 
of Arizona, Captain Wade, well known 
more than half a century ago as an 
enterprising steamboat man on the 
Lakes, had organized the Detroit Copper 
Company in the Clifton District of 
Arizona, but death forestalled his min- 
ing operations. 

About the same time, in 1872, Messrs. 
Freudenthal and Leszynsky, a firm of 
merchants doing business on the Rio 
Grande, entered on a successful copper 
enterprise at Clifton under difficulties 
and dangers that would have deterred 
any but frontiersmen. The nearest 
railway station was about seven hundred 
miles distant in Kansas. Thither the 
bullion had to be transported by wagon, 
but as the smelters were also active 
importers, the bullion gave them return 
loads for some of their empty teams. 
Before 1874 they are reported to have 

201 



202 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



made eight hundred thousand pounds 
of copper, and even under such adverse 
conditions the annual output grew to a 
production of two million pounds in 
1880. The mine which the Leszynskys 
attacked, was the Longfellow, yielding 
a very rich self-fluxing ore. The fur- 
naces first erected were small reverbera- 
tories, built of brick, which are said to 
have cost a dollar apiece. These were 
abandoned and cupolas of the Mexican 
design were then erected, and the ore 
fused by charcoal hauled in from the 
Burro Mountains eighty miles distant. 
To increase the life of the furnaces 
metal plates lined the walls, and these 
were cooled with a spray of water. The 
next step was the erection of furnaces 
built entirely of large troughs cast from 
their own copper; and these primitive 
original prototypes of a water jacket 
were in use until 1883, when the Arizona 
Copper Company, a Scotch organization, 
acquired the Leszynsky plant and mines. 
Meanwhile however, a much more 
important producer had sprung into 
existence. The Southern Pacific had 
reached Benson on the San Pedro River 
earlv in 1880. Sixtv miles to the south- 



east of Benson a claim called the 
"Halcro" had attracted attention by a 
large outcrop of oxidized copper, iron 
and manganese ore. It was relocated 
as the "Copper Queen," and had at- 
tracted the attention of several mining 
engineers. There was however an in- 
vincible dread in the minds of the pro- 
fession against sporadic ore bodies in 
limestone, and the claim fell into the lap 
of an eastern lawyer and a western rail- 
road man, who were encouraged to buy 
it for a trifle. They erected a small 
thirty-six inch water-jacketed furnace 
near the outcrop. Their adviser and 
first manager was Mr. Lewis Williams, 
a practical Welch smelter. No mining 
equipment was required for over a year, 
for the large outcrop of pure rich ore 
sufficed to feed the miniature smelting 
establishment with a furnace mixture' 
netting over twenty per cent copper, 
and yielding from the start more than 
ten tons of copper bars per day. In 
1881 a second furnace was added, and 
from this small plant thirty-four million 
pounds of copper were made from the 
first ore body prior to 1885. 

Although the Queen Company was the 




Section transversely across the southern portion of the Blsbee- Warren district, Arizona, showing 
the vertical distribution of some of the bodies of ore 

The disposition of ore bodies of the Arizona district Is erratic. After a permanency of several 
hundred feet a mine may suddenly end blindly in limestone and the cost of finding another ore body 
may be greater Uian the cost of mining it after found 



COPPER DEPOSITS IN ARIZONA 



203 



largest producer in the territory, all the 
districts which have since been active 
began contributing their quota. We 
have referred to the early activities at 
Clifton. 

The United Verdi deposits in northern 
Arizona had attracted attention before 



even earlier than the Warren District; 
but neither Clifton nor Globe have been 
as prosperous as Bisbee, partly because 
of the highly silicious character of their 
ores. To render these ores fusible a 
large addition of fluxing material had to 
be added to the furnace charge, reducing 




Map of claims showing the horizontal distribution of some of the proved bodies of ore. 
Copper Queen Mine is represented in the upper left hand corner 



The 



actual mining was commenced at Bisbee. 
Ever since their development they have 
yielded an ore of exceptionally favorable 
smelting composition and richness. An- 
other district, that of Globe, which is 
still prominent as a producer, had been 
discovered and superficially explored 



proportionately the percentage of copper 
and involving a heavy loss of copper in 
the slags. Moreover, the Globe ores 
continue to be still deficient in sulphur, 
an element essential to economical smelt- 
ing. On the other hand Bisbee had the 
advantage over its rivals in the South, of 



204 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



a diversity of ores from which a favorable 
furnace mixture could always be made, 
and when matte smelting, with its 
cleaner slags and purer copper was intro- 
duced, Bisbee found itself with an un- 
limited supply of sulphur. At one 
time — but it was of short duration — 
Globe and Clifton could mine a richer 
grade of ore than Bisbee, which now 
enjoys the possession of a fusible ore of 
an average high grade of between five 
and six per cent. 

The first period of the prosperity of 
the Copper Queen terminated abruptly 
in 1884, with the exhaustion of the first 
large ore body. Its apparent isolation 
after maintaining such permanency for 
four hundred feet, and its sudden termi- 
nation in limestone, leaving no apparent 
clue to guide in the search for another 
ore body, was the first warning we had of 
the eccentric deposition of these copper 
deposits in their limestone nidus. They 
are confined to a series of about four 
hundred feet in thickness of the lower 
Carboniferous series and upper Devonian 
series, but owing to their erratic dis- 
tribution, the cost of finding them often 
exceeds the cost of the actual extraction 
of the ore when found. By following 
certain trails blazed by the geologists 
along fault planes, exploration is now 
conducted with more certainty than 
formerly, but the horizontal maps of the 
ore bodies, as yet discovered, exhibit to 
the eye of the uninitiated that the search 
for ore bodies in this district is a more 
capricious task than in most mines. 

Within these beds of ore-bearing lime- 
stone, decay has reached to a great 
depth. They have been partially ex- 
plored for ore, by the Copper Queen and 
the Calumet and Arizona Mining Com- 
panies on their dip for a distance of a 
mile and a half from their outcrop; and at 
a vertical depth of eighteen hundred feet 



from the surface, the ores are completely 
or partially oxidized, and the limestone 
and the intrusive porphyrites in which 
they occur are extensively decayed. 
Masses of unaltered pyritic ore are en- 
countered in the Devonian and Silurian 
limestone, which underlie the Carboni- 
ferous, but those as yet discovered have 
not been large. It is estimated that in 
searching for ore and the development 
of known ore bodies, there have been 
driven by the Copper Queen Company 
two hundred and thirty-five miles of 
horizontal and vertical drifts and raises. 

The disposition of the ore bodies being 
so erratic, more than the usual mining 
risks have occurred. At one time the 
fate of the district was in the balance. 
The summer after Queen commenced 
operations, Messrs. James and Dodge 
bought the Atlanta claim, which was 
parallel to the Copper Queen, and to- 
ward which the ore body of the Copper 
Queen was dipping. Four years were 
expended in drifting, running tunnels 
and following stringers of ore from the 
surface, which ended in nothing. Mean- 
while the Copper Queen ore body had 
ended abruptly, before reaching the 
Atlanta side line. The only other com- 
pany, the Neptune, had exhausted both 
its capital and credit, and had abandoned 
work; and therefore, for a period dark 
clouds of despondency overhung the 
district. 

But almost simultaneously, after the 
Copper Queen had driven an exploratory 
drift in barren limestone for five hundred 
feet, and the Atlanta Mining Company 
after four years of disappointment was 
in despair, both companies struck the 
same new ore body. Instead of quarrel- 
ing as to ownership, under the law of the 
apex, they decided to unite. The At- 
lanta Mining Company merged itself 
into the Copper Queen, reappearing in 



COPPER DEPOSITS IN ARIZONA 



205 



the word "Consolidated." In fact how- 
ever the Copper Queen proved to have 
been worked out, and the Atlanta alone 
supplied the ore for years which restored 
the Consolidated Company to prosperity 
and fame. 

The copper industry was passing 
through the most trying period of its 
existence. The price of standard copper 
bars (of ninety-six per cent) had dropped 
from eighteen cents to a trifle under eight 
cents per pound, Lake copper standing as 
low as ten cents. Dividends failed to be 
paid during 1885, 1886 and 1887, the 
only blanks in the dividend record of the 
Company. To make cheaper copper, 
better appliances had to be introduced. 
A new smelter was erected and despite 
low prices, a fraction of a cent per pound 
was made — when M. Sacretan unin- 
tentionally sacrificed himself and his 
bank for the good of the copper world. 
After that, as years rolled by, the Com- 
pany acquired adjacent property and 
enlarged the capacity of its furnaces. 
Meanwhile the character of the ores 
changed in depth. The presence of 
sulphur in the furnace charge resulted 
in the production of matte, as well as 
copper. This involved a radical altera- 
tion in the metallurgical methods and 
the design of the smelter. Bessemer 
converters were added to the plant. 
Although the conversion of all the copper 
into matte involved a slight extra smelt- 
ing cost, by making cleaner slags a saving 
of more than one per cent in the furnace 
returns was made. Moreover the bars 
produced carried ninety-nine per cent 
of copper and over, instead of ninety-six 
per cent. 

As a result of the greater purity of the 
bars, the cost of refining by electrolysis 
was reduced to a figure that made it 
profitable to pay the refiner the slight 
excess over the old furnace method and 



recover the precious metals. Since 189d 
all the copper has been refined electro- 
lytically, and has saved seventy or eighty 
cents in gold and silver per ton of ore. 
It is a trifle per ton, but amounts at 
present to an aggregate of $865,000 
per annum from the Company's ores 
alone. 

The second works, erected in the 
cramped valley around which the town 
of Bisbee had grown up, could not be 
expanded to meet the growth of the 
Company's production, and therefore 
toward the close of the century, it was 
recognized that a new smelter in a new 
locality must be built. 

As early as 1887 a railroad of thirty- 
nine miles was built by the Company 
to connect with the Santa Fe Railroad's 
Sonora System at Fairbanks. Its tracks 
were extended for twenty-eight miles 
easterly to Douglas, a junction point of 
a Mexican railroad built to meet the re- 
quirements of a mineral region which 
had been developed at Nacozari, seventy 
miles south of the international boundary 
line. At this junction point in the 
Sulphur Spring Valley, suitable sites 
were selected for two smelting plants of 
large size, which were planned by the 
Copper Queen Company and the Calu- 
met and Arizona Mining Company. 
This latter vigorous organization had 
entered the district in 1898, and has 
aided in the development of its resources. 
The two mining companies agreed to 
cooperate rather than to litigate, and 
the method has so far worked success- 
fully. 

The large reduction works at Douglas, 
Arizona, were planned to smelt in cupola 
furnaces about fifteen hundred tons of 
ore per day. But they have grown in 
size and in complexity of methods, until 
now there are treated daily twenty-five 
hundred tons of ore in the cupolas and 



206 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



five hundred tons of concentrates from 
Nacozari and flue dust in reverbera- 
tories. 



A table of production and of dividends 
gives in brief the history of the enter- 
prise's success since its^organization. 



Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co., from the Year 1887 
Copper Queen Mining Co., previous to 1887 





Mining Claims 




Dividends 






Acquired. 


Lbs. 


Paid 




Year 






Copper 
Producsd 






Claims 


Acres 


Amount 


Remarks 


1881 
1882 
1883 


2 


26.08 


• 34,536,000 
6,721,535 


[ 1,350,000 


Under Messrs. Martin &'Ballard and original 
Copper Queen Mining Co. 


1884 


\ 


0.473 






1885 


3 


37.99 


— 


Under Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. 


1886 


— 


— 


3,797,360 


— 


Developing mines and rebuilding smelting 


1887 


16 
5 


188.734 
59.107 


5,945,550 
9,379,949 


140,000 


works 


1888 




1889 


1 


10.77 


9,408,000 


105,000 


Enlarged smelting works and better prices paid 


1890 


1 


11.56 


9,031,680 


210,000 


for copper by M. Secretan during 1888 and 


1891 


3 


23.19 


10,203,683 


420,000 


1889 


1892 


28 
6 


234.353 
55.685 


9,806,764 
13,795,618 


385,000 
300,000 


• 


1893 




1894 


— 


— 


12,688,372 


200,000 




1895 


— 


— 


15,741,731 


250,000 


Large accessions of property by acquiring the 


1896 


— 


— 


23,298,150 


400,000 


Holbrook & Cave Co.'s mine, the Neptune 


1897 


— 


— 


23,999,873 


700,000 


Co., and other claims. The Bisbee smelter 


1898 


2 


0.708 


33,749,390 


1,000,000 


was enlarged to an extent limited by the size 


1899 


2 


0.872 


36,901,684 


2,000,000 


of the site on which the works were located 


1900 


6 


54 . 722 


34,382,309 


2,800,000 


up to the date of their removal from Bisbee 


1901 


35 


430.485 


39,781,333 


3,150,000 


to Douglas : 


1902 


10 


196.21 


35,831,755 


800,000 




1903 


7 


120.168 


36,939,800 
61,225,522 


800,000 
800,000 




1904 




1905 


— 




76,791,981 


2,300,000 




1906 


— 




79,807,461 


6,500,000 




1907 
1908 


— 


z 


62,502,961 
81,986,236 


3,800,000 
3,000,000 


The production of the Douglas smelter 


1909 


— 


— 


75,869,405 


4,025,000 




1910 


— 


— 


71,928,357 


6,300,000 




1911 


45 


727.494 


75,203,813 


5,200,000 





ANCIENT POTTERY FROM NASCA, PERU 

By Charles W. Mead 

The Nasca Collection of pottery, featherwork, textiles and other objects has been purchased and 
presented to the Museum by Mr. A. D. Juilliard 



THE Museum has recently had 
the rare good fortune to secure 
in a collection from prehistoric 
graves in Nasca, Peru, some four hundred 
and twelve examples of pottery. Nazca 
pottery is undoubtedly the most beauti- 
ful ware so far discovered in South 
America, which is saying much in view 
of the thousands of remarkable pieces 
that have been brought to light in vari- 
ous localities, especially along the Peru- 
vian coast and in the high plateau region 
about Lake Titicaca. The pottery from 
Nasca is a thin ware showing a high de- 
gree of skill in the firing, but its claim 
to preeminence lies in the beauty of its 
painted decorations. The designs are 
mostly derived from the same motives 
as those found on Pachacamac pottery 
of the so-called " Tiahuanaco " style, but 
are much more highly elaborated. Many 
different colors and tints are employed, 
and the color schemes are worked out in 
a truly artistic manner. 

The credit of bringing this unique 
pottery to light is due to Dr. Max Uhle. 
In a short account of his discovery of the 
Necropolis of Nasca in 1901 (Proceedings 
Davenport [Iowa] Academy of Sciences, 
vol. xiii, 1-46) he tells us that he had 
previously seen in the Berlin Museum fur 
Volkerkunde a group of four polychrome 
vessels of an unknown type. They had 
come into the possession of the Museum 
in the seventies, labeled as coming from 
lea and Chala. Nothing resembling 
them had been seen and as the region 
around these localities was unknown to 
archaeologists, but little importance was 



attached to the original labels. Dr. 
Uhle says, " I still recollect the enthusi- 
asm with which the late Adolf Bastian,^ 
the founder of the Museum fiir Volker- 
kunde, extolled these few strange and 
wonderful objects, the like of which 
never had been seen before as coming 
from Peru." 

Dr. Uhle states that it was largely 
owing to the inspiration of Professor 
Bastian that he "determined to study 
the question as to the provenience and 
cultural significance of this type of 
polychrome ware," of which he had seen 
these few specimens in Berlin. 

The second Hearst expedition to Peru, 
under the auspices of the University of 
California, furnished Dr. Uhle the de- 
sired opportunity of searching for the 
mysterious hiding place. He arrived in 
the department of lea in November, 
1900, and having purchased riding mules, 
immediately set out on his quest. 

It was in the month of January, 1901, 
while visiting at the hacienda Ocucaje, 
twenty-five miles south of lea, that he 
realized the object of his search; but 
let him give an account of his discovery 
in his own words. He says, "After 
having made a number of minor excava- 
tions with the same negative results as 
all the former attempts, I was riding one 
day around a sandy edge of the valley 
when my eye was arrested by a simple 
potsherd lying upon the ground. It 
proved to be a fragment of a large bowl, 
quite undecorated but for a band of red 
coloring along the upper rim. My atten- 
tion was thereby rouged at once. Only 

207 



208 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



in objects of the Tiahuanaco period had 
I so far found this characteristic feature. 
I decided to dig in this place. Quickly 
the necessary workmen were brought 
together and a donkey was set to work 
to carry all day long the supply of 
drinking water from a spot three miles 
away where water was to be found in the 
river bed at about three feet below 
ground. The first day's work proved 
that the long sought cemetery had, at 
last, been found and that the beautiful 
polychrome ware had been located." 

Archaeologists recognize four principal 
types in the immense variety of prehis- 
toric Peruvian pottery : that of Tiahuan- 
aco ; the Inca type on the shores of Lake 
Titicaca, with its classical forms; that 
of the region of Trujillo, and the Nasca 
style with its polychrome decorations. 
These four different types would seem to 
mark periods of the highest cultural 
development in Peru in prehistoric 
times. 

What has ever been a mystery in the 
study of the archaeology of southern 
Peru is the fact that so many of the seats 
of culture are found to be in arid valleys 
where there is little or no running water, 
surrounded by extensive deserts. In 
many such situations there must have 
been a dense population as evinced by 
the vast cemeteries. There do not seem 
to be any known facts to support the 
theory that the climate has undergone 
any great change. Why were such locali- 
ties selected and how was it possible that 
means of support could be found for a 
large body of people under such unfavor- 
able conditions? Although the vicinity 
of Nasca does not appear to have been 
one of the densely populated districts, the 



conditions were the same as others just 
described. 

Nasca lies about two hundred and 
twenty miles to the south of Lima and 
fifty miles inland from the Pacific coast. 
The region is extremely hot and dry, and 
the soil is mostly sand strongly impreg- 
nated with nitre. About the only native 
forms of vegetation to be seen are alga- 
roba trees and the indigenous cotton 
bush. 

The graves are usually from six to 
ten feet deep in the sand. The body, 
clothed in a poncho and wrapped about 
with various pieces of cloth, was placed 
in a sitting posture. Commonly two or 
more vessels of this beautiful polychrome 
ware, and various articles that had be- 
longed to the deceased, were placed 
beside the body in the grave; sticks of 
algaroba wood were laid over the 
"mummy," and the pit filled in with 
sand. Infants were buried in large 
earthen jars. Objects of gold have been 
found in these graves, but up to the 
present time no implements of copper 
or bronze have been discovered. 

The colors used in decorating Nasca 
pottery were white, yellowish white, 
yellow, red, orange red, pink, deep red, 
brown, light blue, blue, violet, gray and 
black. As in other parts of Peru, the 
decorative motives are largely drawn 
from the human figure, birds, fish, the 
great cats, mythological monsters which 
are usually a combination of human and 
animal figures, and geometrical designs 
derived from the textile art. The ac- 
companying illustrations show forms and 
decorative designs, but of course give 
no idea of the colors which are the chief 
charm of these ancient water vessels. 



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THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



LETTERS arrived late in May from 
various members of the Crocker 
Land expedition, brought to civ- 
ilization by Knud Rasmussen, the Dan- 
ish explorer. The Crocker Land expedi- 
tion under the leadership of Donald B. 
MacMillan left New York on July 2 for 
three years of exploration work over the 
ice cap of Greenland and northwest from 
Cape Thomas Hubbard to investigate the 
land which Peary reported that he saw 
over the sea ice and named Crocker Land. 
Until these letters came, the Museum 
had received no word from the expedi- 
tion since a report sent to New York 
on August 30, 1913, when the expedition 
was making preparations to winter at 
Etah, the site of Peary's former camp. 
In fact considerable disappointment 
has been felt at not receiving frequent 
news as the expedition carried wireless 
and there had been hope of continual 
communication. It now appears that 
the lack of result with wireless has been 
due probably to two reasons: that the 
location of the expedition's winter quart- 
ers at Etah has been unsuitable to give 
a proper lead for their aerial and that 
the instruments carried are not of suffi- 
cient power without the intermediate 
station at Cape Wolstenholme, Hudson 
Bay, which was to be established by the 
Canadian government. 

When the letters were written the 
expedition's difficult work had not yet 
been undertaken. The men had been 
snugly ensconced at Etah in a commo- 
dious well-heated house constructed of 
lumber carried for the purpose. The 
house is equipped with electric lights 
within and without. There had been 
plenty of the food of civilization. With 
youth, health and what had proved 
congenial comradeship, they had worked 
in and about this "palace," as they 



named it, making only relatively short 
excursions to hunt and to cache sup- 
plies at Anoritok twenty-five miles 
north and at the entrance of Buchanan 
Bay across Smith Sound on Ellesmere 
Land, although Ekblaw had made the 
longer journey to Cape Melville to view 
a meteorite purchased by Rasmussen 
from the Eskimo. Their letters are 
filled with enthusiasm for the four hun- 
dred-mile journey planned for the spring 
over Ellesmere Land and Grant Land and 
an additional one hundred and twenty- 
five miles of sea ice to the new land. 
The following quotations give somewhat 
the story of the months since they 
reached Etah: 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER FROM DONALD B. 
MACMILLAN, LEADER OF THE EXPEDITION, TO 
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, PRESIDENT OF THE 
AMERICAN MUSEUM, WRITTEN AT ETAH, NORTH 
GREENLAND, JANUARY 10, 1914 

The midnight of the long Arctic 
night is over with every one in good 
health and eager for the big work ahead 
of us. Apparently the darkness and 
absence of the sun has had no effect at 
all upon the boys ; they are just as happy 
as ever and singing most of the time. 
Ekblaw is now on a trip with dog team 
to the shores of Melville Bay to obtain 
if possible a piece of a large meteorite 
found byKoodlooktoo. We should make 
every effort to secure all of it if the 
Eskimo boy had not sold it to the Danes. 
It is imdoubtedly part of the same 
fall from which came "Ahnighito" and 
the others secured by Peary in 1896 and 
1897 .... 

The day after the ship left us we began 
excavating with picks and dynamite for 
our house, selecting a well sheltered spot 
in the midst of the Eskimo igloos. The 
work went on day and night and on 

209 



210 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



September 12 we moved into a large, 
comfortable home 34 by 34, eight rooms 
on the ground floor and a large attic for 
a store room. To this we added as a 
protection from the cold and for quarters 
for our dog-drivers a shed eight feet 
wide on two sides. I am quite sure we 
have the most palatial residence ever 
put up in the Arctic with our electric 
lights and with telephone to two Eskimo 
igloos. We have tried to make the boys 
just as comfortable as possible as an in- 
ducement to good work, giving them good 
warm rooms and good warm clothing. 

... .1 have succeeded in establishing 
two provision stations on the line of 
march to Crocker Land, one at Anoritok, 
about twenty-five miles north of here 
and the other across Smith Sound over 
in Ellesmere Land at the entrance of 
Buchanan Bay. The boys crossed over 
last month by moonlight getting five 
polar bears on the way. This moon our 
dog-drivers are all hunting walrus, hop- 
ing to give our dogs plenty of meat so as 
to keep them strong for the hard work 
to come. 

. . . .We have over a thousand miles 
to go in a temperature ranging from 
thirty degrees to seventy degrees below, 
and such an undertaking cannot be ac- 
complished without hardship and suffer- 
ing and loss of dogs. The evil spirit of 
the Arctic is always watching and can 
change success into misfortune and 
failure within a few hours. One month 
ago the boys with their dog-drivers had 
no trouble at all in getting to Anoritok. 
This month when the ice conditions 
should be better we were blocked by 
open water almost within sight of the 
house. Such is the uncertainty of one's 
work here. 

When we left home Allen and Green 
were quite sure that we should be able 
to communicate with you by wireless 
whenever we liked. They have tried, 



have worked like Trojans, have listened 
attentively but not a tick or a buzz 
have we heard, which is a great disap- 
pointment to the Museum and our 
friends. In the spring we shall try kites 
to support the aerial and keep trying as 
long as we are here, hoping that condi- 
tions may be right at some time to catch 
us. 

We shall leave the house here for 
Crocker Land about February 10 with 
twenty-one men and one hundred and 
sixty dogs and shall remain on the other 
side just as long as we possibly can. If 
cut off by open water in Smith Sound we 
can easily subsist on game found in the 
region, crossing over when ice forms late 
in the fall. 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM FITZHUGH 
GREEN TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER DATED 

JANUARY 11 and 24, 1914, written at etah, 

NORTH GREENLAND 

Our plans for the spring trip are com- 
plete. I leave two weeks from to-day, 
when the moon is up and increasing 
daylight permits traveling. . . . 

The white men do not travel together. 
We cannot take tents and shall depend 
on the natives for our snow shelters. 
We are taking tea, biscuit and pemmi- 
can for eighty days but do not expect 
to be back until June, depending on 
game for food later.... We can take 
only the clothes in which we walk, spare 
foot gear, an extra shirt and a sleeping 
bag. 

I know that you care not the snap of 
your fingers whether we find Crocker 
Land or not. I realize that I must come 
back to you. But even that cannot 
change the everlasting desire inside of 
me, the passion to travel, to fight the 
cold, and the wind and the nights, to 
be hungry and kill game. Unless the 
Devil himself gets into my luck and lays 
me up early with a frozen foot or the like 



THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



211 



I am going to have the time of my hfe 
on that trip. The only thing that can 
prevent it will he the tender bringing 
up I had in the South, which the Eskimo 
had the luck to miss. 

Just now the wind is trying to blow 
the house down. That seems to be the 
daily task it sets itself, but it only makes 
the stove draw better. 

The hills are silent, there is no answer 
to my footstep from the great white 
plains. I walk and walk! Cold? No! 
the thermometer says it is bitter cold 
but the glass tube is a plaything of the 
South — it lies ! My hands are bare — 
from one dangles my mittens wet with 
sweat, in the other is my whip with 
which I clip little dents in the snow 
around me. The whip is about twenty- 
five feet long and it cracks like a pistol 
in the crisp air. Over my head circles 
a great round moon, brighter than any 
you ever saw. Round and round she 
goes, rolling lazily along; underfoot the 
road is miles wide and leagues long, 
whiter than the whitest marble it 
stretches away into the dreams that 
come. I seem to weigh nothing; my 
muscles are steel springs; I laugh aloud! 
I throw back the hood of my koolitah — 
its fox tail roll keeps my face warm but 
I tire of it. I listen, not a breath — not 
a movement in the miles and miles that 
lie before my eyes. Even the mist over 
the ice cap hangs sleeping on the white 
breast beneath. 

.... Last month Ekblaw and I laid our 
food supplies up to the coast and over 
in Ellesmere Land for the spring trip that 
starts in February, as soon as it gets light 
enough to travel in the day time. We 
each had our divisions of Eskimo but 
kept in touch with each other. Onthelast 
trip that ended just before Christmas we 
got five bears. I shot one of them. Now 
I have bearskin pants, mittens, and trim- 
mings of bearskin on all of my fur clothes. 



We had temperature below 50° be- 
low zero and had a bad gale with the 
bitter weather. Even the Eskimo 
frosted their faces. But I have become 
so used to freezing my face that it is no 

more than sunburn at home We 

got all turned around and were traveling 
in the night and sleeping in the daytime 
by the time we reached home. I could 
write all night about things but will tell 
you some day. All I have to say is that 
I hope the ship gets wrecked on her way 
up to take us back so that we can stay 
another year. I guess the Lord made 
me an Eskimo and then forgot and sent 
me to you instead of to Panikpah or 
the like. 

The Eskimo are an ideal crowd. They 
are good-natured, unselfish and ever- 
lastingly good fun. The children have 
white children beaten a mile. I have a 
regular nursery in my room and never 
feel at home unless I stumble over two 
or three when I am trying to find my 
clothes or writing material. 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER WRITTEN JANUARY 9 
AT ETAH BY DR. HARRISON J. HUNT 

Last moon I went to North Star Bay 
to see some sick people, and visited all 
the Eskimo settlements on the way 
home. They are eager to go with us. 
This tribe needs a doctor to reside with 
them. A small lying-in hospital would 
increase the population at once as the 
death rate among infants and mothers 
is very high. With about forty thou- 
sand dollars behind me I would like to 
undertake the task. 

The colony at Etah shot about fifty 
caribou this fall. Seals are plenty and 
large Arctic rabbits, one of which I shot 
to-day weighing nine pounds, and there 
are bear and fox, to say nothing of the 
ducks of which we have eaten a great 
many. 
. . . .The Eskimo are with us all the time, 



212 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



make our skin clothes and eat our food 
in return. They are a clean lot and as 
honest as the day is long. Nothing is 
ever taken although things are left about 
under their noses all the time. . . . 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER WRITTEN BY W. 
ELMER EKBLAW, NORTH STAR BAY, NORTH 
GREENLAND, JANUARY 16, 1914 

... .1 am writing this letter at the 
polar cabin of Herr Knud Rasmussen at 
this place, on my return trip from Cape 
Melville whither I went with him to 
examine a great meteorite near there. 
He has purchased it from Koodlooktoo, 
the Eskimo who found it for the museum 
of the University of Copenhagen. I am 
making as careful a report as my facili- 
ties permit to be sent to the king of 
Denmark, secure in the conviction that 
you will fully approve my thus taking 
upon myself the responsibility for an 
action which I deem but an international 
courtesy and scientific duty .... 

We are all in good health, quite 
enthusiastic despite our failure to get 
the wireless messages through, and ex- 
cept for the fact that our dogs are not 
in condition, well ready for the coming 
dash to Crocker Land . . . 

My 300-mile journey to Cape Melville 
and return during this midwinter moon 
has been fraught with much adventure, 
much interesting and novel experience, 
and all the scientific observation I could 
make by moonlight and the waxing mid- 
day twilight. It is a journey I should 
like very much to make by daylight, 
for the geological phenomena of interest 
to science are numerous and varied and 
would richly reward the investigator. I 
wish I might stay here five years in- 
stead of three, for even so, I should be 
busy every possible moment on the prob- 
lems I have already encountered. There 
is great work to be done here by some 



enthusiast, particularly in geology and 
botany. I feel sure that in the Pre- 
Cambrian formations and in the glacial 
phenomena, results could be obtained 
that would throw much light on the 
geology of all North America . . . 

Herr Knud Rasmussen has shown me 
every courtesy. I feel he is a man 
worthy of your personal attention to 
which I commend him should he ever 
come to New York. He is a gentleman, 
a capable and trained explorer and a 
carefully educated ethnologist. 

LETTER WRITTEN BY DONALD B. MACMILLAN 
AT ETAH, JANUARY 21, 1914 

Ekblaw is just in from Melville Bay . . . 
Rasmussen is most kind and offers to help 
us in every way possible. He had plans 
for an attack on Crocker Land this year 
but most generously gave them up when 
he read of our intentions. 

We have only three weeks now before 
leaving on the long trip. Eighteen 
sledges will leave here from February 7 
to 9 loaded with about 9000 pounds of 
food and equipment. Four sledges will 
probably return from the head of Beit- 
stad Fiord; others will go on to Cape 
Thomas Hubbard. From here I am 
planning to send Dr. Hunt south to run 
in unexplored coastline and Tanquary 
north. Ekblaw, Green and myself with 
eight Eskimo will head out northwest 
over the Polar Sea. When leaving Etah 
we shall have food for eighty days. 
This, I hope, will put us on the shores of 
Crocker Land and back to Cape Thomas 
Hubbard. For the 300-inile trip home 
we shall depend upon the game of the 
country, remaining in EUesmere Land 
just as long as we possibly can .... Nat- 
urally I am very much disappointed over 
the failure of our wireless. Possibly the 
big station in Hudson Bay has not been 
installed so you may hear from us yet. 



MUSEUM NOTES 



Since the last issue of the Journal the 
following persons have become members of 
the Museum: 

Founder, Hon. Joseph H. Choate; 

Associate Founders, Messrs. Cleveland 
H. Dodge, Archer M. Huntington, Arthur 
CuRTiss James, Charles Lanier, Ogden 
Mills, Percy R. Pyne and William Rocke- 
feller; 

Life Members, Mrs. Robert Stewart, 
Miss Katharine DuBois and Mr. J. K. 
Robinson; 

Sustaining Member, Mrs. Robert Stew- 
art; 

Annual Members, Mrs. Francis C. Bar- 
low, Mrs. H. B. Goldsmith, Mrs. J. M. 
HuBER, Mrs. Eugene Lewis, Mrs. Thomas 
P. McKenna, Dr. Robert Abbe, Prof. 
Wesley C. Mitchell, Rev. J. Frederick 
Talcott and Messrs. Samuel Frank, 
MoE Jacob, William Krone, William 
Siegel, David Shearman Taber, Jr., 
Ferdinand Weber and Joseph Wittmann. 

The zoological collections which, through 
the generosity of Colonel Roosevelt, the 
Museum has received from the Roosevelt 
expedition to South America, amount to 
twenty-five hundred birds and four hundred 
and fifty mammals. 

Work was begun by George K. Cherrie 
and Leo E. Miller, whom Colonel Roosevelt 
took with him as representatives of the 
Museum, in the vicinity of Asuncion, Para- 
guay, in the early part of November. The 
next collecting station was in the vicinity of 
Curumbd. From this point, the expedition 
proceeded northward through San Luiz de 
Cdceres to Utiarity and Tapirapoan. 

At Utiarity Mr. Anthony Fiala, "chief 
of commissary," started with Lieutenant 
Lauriodo Sta. Anna, and six natives, down 
the Papagaio, Juruena and Tapajoz Rivers 
at Santarem. The expedition continued its 
five-hundred-mile overland ride to the Rio 
da Diivida. From here Mr. Miller with 
Second Lieutenant Joaquim Manuel Vieira 
de Mello, Euzebio Paulo de Oliveira, and 
Heinrich Reinish, representatives of the 
Brazilian Government, went overland three 
days, then down the Gy Parana and Madeira 
Rivers and up the Negro to Manaos. 

On February 27, the main party, consisting 
of Colonel Roosevelt, Colonel Rondon, 



Lieutenant Lyra and Doctor Cajazeira, of 
the Brazilian Army, Kermit Roosevelt, 
George K. Cherrie and fifteen canoemen, 
started on what proved to be a perilous 
voyage down the hitherto unexplored Rio da 
Diivida, which was ascertained to flow into 
the Madeira. The difficulties of transporta- 
tion were so great that comparatively few 
specimens were collected by Mr. Cherrie on 
this trip. Those which he did obtain, how- 
ever, proved to be of exceptional interest. 

Mr. Miller made an important addition 
to the collection at Calama, at the junction 
of the Gy Parand and Madeira, and also at 
Manaos, which he reached several weeks in 
advance of Colonel Roosevelt's party. 

The Library has just received as a gift 
from Mr. Anson W. Hard a number of rare 
and valuable works. Die Infusionsthierchen 
als vollkommene Organismen and Mikrogeologie 
by D. C. G. Ehrenberg, who made the first 
serious investigations of micro-organisms by 
the aid of the microscope, are noteworthy 
additions to the Library. Trees of Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland by Henry John Elwes, pri- 
vately printed in seven volumes with magnifi- 
cent plates, will be appreciated by all tree 
lovers and students of forestry. Of hardly 
less note are Delectus animxilium articulatorum 
by Spix and Martius, Voyage pittoresQue et his- 
torique an Bresil by J. B. Debret and Voyage 
to New Guinea and the Moluccas from Balam- 
bangan by Thomas Forrest. 

At a recent meeting of the Board of 
Trustees the constitution of the Museum was 
amended so that the incorporators of the 
institution should be designated as Founders 
of the Museum, and was further amended to 
create a class of members to be designated as 
Associate Founders. All persons contribut- 
ing $25,000 in cash, securities or property to 
the funds of the Museum are eligible for 
election to this class. 

The Academy of Natuial Science of Phila- 
delphia has conferred the Hayden Memorial 
Medal for the year 1914 upon Professor 
Henry Fairfield Osborn in recognition of his 
contributions to the science of vertebrate 
palaeontology. 

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has ar- 
ranged to give to members of the American 

213 




Members of the Roosevelt expedition to South America. At the left of Theodore Roosevelt, 
Father Zahm, George K. Cherrie, representative of the American Museum and Anthony Fiala, chief 
of commissary; at the right, Kermit Roosevelt, Frank Harper and Leo E. Miller, representative of 
the American Museum 



Museum in the fall the first presentation 
of the zoological results of his recent expedi- 
tion to South America. 

Two expeditions from the department of 
vertebrate palaeontology will be sent out this 
summer in search of fossils. The first expedi- 
tion in charge of Mr. Barnum Brown, assisted 
by Mr. P. C. Kaisen. will confine its operations 
to the Red Deer River of Alberta, Canada, 
where it will endeavor to collect Cretaceous 
dinosaurs, and the second in charge of Mr. 
Albert Thomson will go to the big quarry at 
Agate, Nebraska, to secure additional Moro- 
pus skeletons. 

Mr. John A. Grossbeck, a patron of the 
Museum and a member of the department 
of invertebrate zoology, died in Barbados 
on April 8. Although Mr. Grossbeck was 
taken ill more than a year ago, his health 
seemed to be partially recovered, and in order 
to regain his strength he was touring the 
Caribbean region with his brother when he 
died suddenly during a change of boats. 

Mr. Grossbeck came to the Museum about 
four years ago, having previously been con- 
nected with the New Jersey State Experiment 
Station. While in that institution he made 
valuable discoveries concerning a wide range 

214 



of injurious insects but especially concerning 
the life history of mosquitoes. His chief 
scientific interest however was in the Geome- 
tridae — the family of moths whose young are 
the "measuring worms." On coming to the 
Museum Mr. Grossbeck gave to it his valua- 
ble collection of this group as well as his gen- 
eral collection of local insects. In recognition 
of his generosity he was made a patron. Mr. 
Grossbeck devoted himself to the work on in- 
sects with untiring zeal and by reason of his 
broad entomological training was able to 
further the work in all of its branches. He 
had already made an international reputation 
in entomology and it will be exceedingly diffi- 
cult for the Museum to find a successor who 
will combine Mr. Grossbeck's willingness to 
serve with an equal entomological knowl- 
edge. 

The Museum wishes to express its sincere 
sympathy to the bereaved families of two of 
its workers, William A. Dolan and Christian 
Hundertpfund of the mechanical staff, who 
had served the institution faithfully for 
thirteen and twelve years respectively. 

The publicity committee of the Museum, 
created during the winter, has been endeavor- 
ing to acquaint the people in New York City 



MUSEUM NOTES 



215 



with the Museum's exhibits and activities. 
Sixty thousand folders have been printed 
and placed in the hotels and steamboats and 
a number of large framed posters have been 
put in conspicuous places throughout the city. 

The department of public education of the 
American Museum is sending photographs 
and explanatory labels illustrating its work 
among the blind in New York City, to the 
Exhibition of the Arts and Industries of the 
Blind held in connection with the Interna- 
tional Conference on the Blind which occurs 
in London from June 18 to 24. 

Mr. George C. Longley, a life member of 
the Museum, has recently returned from five 
months' archajological study on the island of 
Jamaica. Mr. Longley spent much of his 
time while at the island in excavating the 
kitchen middens of the Arawak, the pre- 
historic inhabitants of Jamaica. He has add- 
ed the results of his researches to the collec- 
tion presented by him to the Museum in 1913. 
The additions consist of two human skulls 
found in a cave in the northeastern end of the 
island, a stone idol, two perforated cylindrical 
stones, usually called "chief's stones," more 
than one hundred stone axes (called by the 
natives "thunder balls"), and a large 
number of pieces of broken pottery ves- 
sels which show the manner of decorat 
ing by incised Hues and dots. 

A replica of the famous bust of 
Louis Pasteur by Dubois has been 
presented to the Museum for instal- 
lation in the hall of public health, 
through the generosity of Dr. Roux, 
Director of the Pasteur Institute in 
Paris and M. Vallery-Radot, son-in 
law of M. Pasteur. 

A Tibet apron obtained by the 
Younghusband expedition of 1903-4 from 
the largest temple at Lhasa has been pre- 
sented to the Museum by Mrs. John 
Magee. This apron is made of the bon s of 
saints or holy men and is looked upon as 
very sacred. The carving on the bones is 
unusually beautiful. Such aprons are 
worn in order that the virtue possessed by 
the bones may pass into the wearer and 
he may thus acquire holiness. Few similar 
examples have as yet found their way to 
museums. This specimen was exhibited to 
Museum members for the first time on the 
evening of May 6 when Sir Francis Edward 



Younghusband lectured on 
Entrance to Lhasa." 



Tibet and the 



Mr. James Barnes of the Barnes-Kearton 
expedition, which crossed Central Africa 
under the auspices of the American Museum, 
has returned to New York bringing with him 
a splendid series of motion-picture films. Mr. 
Barnes will give an exhibition of these films 
to the members of the Museum in the fall. 




Bust of Pasteur presented to the Museum 
by Dr. Rou.x and M. Vallery-Radot 



216 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The model of the Copper Queen Mine 
(the full description of which by Dr. E. O. 
Hovey has been necessarily deferred until 
the next issue of the Journal) is supple- 
mented by a collection of specimens illustrat- 
ing the mineralogy of the region about 
Bisbee, Arizona, another series illustrating 
the commercial ores of the mines, sets of rock 
specimens giving the economic and general 
geology of Bisbee, still other samples showing 
the smelter treatment of the ores at Douglas, 
accompanied by photographs of mines, sur- 
rounding country and the smelter. Some of 
the specimens deserve special mention, partic- 
ularly the group of velvet malachites whose 
surface is composed of delicate needle-like 
crystals. A geode-like mass of smooth botry- 
oidal malachite attracts much attention. 
The great prism of ore, about three feet 
square by five feet high and weighing about 
three and one-half tons, occupying a special 
case, was raised through the Czar shaft of the 
Copper Queen Mines and exhibited first at the 
Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. It 
contains more than a ton of pure copper be- 
sides some silver and gold. 

The New York Academy of Sciences with 
the cooperation of the American Museum, 
the New York Botanical Garden, the scien- 
tific departments of Columbia University, 
New York University and other institutions, 
has begun a scientific study of the island of 
Porto Rico along the lines of geology, palae- 
ontology, zoology, botany, anthropology and 
oceanography. With the assistance of a 
friend the Academy has voted to expend 
$1500 a year for five years on this work and 
the insular government of Porto Rico has 
made an appropriation of $5000 for the 
fiscal year beginning July 1, 1914, with the 
expectation that this appropriation would be 
repeated on each of the ensuing four years. 
The committee having the work in charge 
consists of Professors N. L. Britton, James 
F. Kemp, Franz Boas, C. L. Poor and H. E. 
Crampton. Mr. Roy W. Miner of the Mu- 
seum's department of invertebrate zoology 
and Mr. John T. Nichols of the Museum's 
department of ichthyology and herpetology 
will be among those who will carry on in- 
vestigations in Porto Rico this summer. 

On June 4 Mr. Paul J. Rainey, who has 
recently returned from a two years' residence 
jn British East Africa, gave to the members 



of the Museum the first exhibition of his 
latest motion pictures of African wild-animal 
life. Because of the popularity of the lecture 
the auditorium was not only filled at eight 
o'clock but there was also a large overflow of 
members waiting for admission . In order not 
to disappoint these, Mr. Rainey kindly con- 
sented to repeat his lecture later in the even- 
ing when more than eleven hundred were in 
attendance. To insure the preservation of 
the films as scientific records, Mr. Rainey haa 
presented a set to the Museum. 

In the May number of Petermann's 
Mitteilungen, appears the first chart to be 
published of the Bay of Isles, South Georgia 
Island. The map and accompanying article 
are by Mr. Robert Cushman Murphy and 
represent a phase of the scientific work of the 
expedition to the Subantarctic Atlantic,, 
conducted during 1912-13 by the American 
Museum of Natural History in conjunction 
with the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and 
Sciences. The chart is of further interest to 
friends of either institution because one of the 
great valley glaciers in the Bay of Isles has 
been named "Lucas Glacier" in honor of the 
Director of the American Museum and 
another glacier is labeled "Morris Glacier" 
for the late curator of natural science in the 
Brooklyn Museum. A third is called "Grace 
Glacier" for the cartographer's wife and the 
fourth and largest "Brunonia Glacier" for 
Brown University. "Point Bellinghausen " 
commemorating the Russian circumnavigator 
who made the survey of South Georgia in the 
year 1820, "Beckman Fiord," named for the 
Norwegian whaleman, and "Cape Woodrow 
Wilson" are among other localities which 
have been added to the map of the island. 

The Bay of Isles was discovered in 1775 by 
Captain James Cook. For more than a 
hundred years it has been a harbor of much 
importance to sealers and sea elephant 
hunters at South Georgia. Recently it has 
been visited by whalers and by the Swedish 
Antarctic expedition but no survey of its 
extensive fiords and numerous islets had been 
pubUshed until the present chart appeared. 

The department of geology and inverte- 
brate palaeontology will cooperate with the 
Oklahoma Geological Survey in sending a 
field party into the Arbuckle Mountains, 
Oklahoma, during July and August. Dr. 
Chester A. Reeds of the Museum will bo in 
charge of the party. 



'OLUME XIV 



OCTOBER-NOVEM^ER^l.914^^^ NUMBER (^1 




REE TO MEMBERS 



TWPMTV r-KNITC DCli rTin\/ 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

President 

Henry Fairfield Osborn 

First Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge 

Treasurer 

Charles Lanier 

John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor op the City of New York 

William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York 

Cabot Ward, President of the Department of Parks 



Second Vice-President 

J. P. Morgan 

Secretary 

Adrian Iselin, Jr. 



George F. Baker 
Frederick F. Brewster 
Joseph H. Choate 
R. Fulton Cutting 
Thomas DeWitt Cuyler 
James Douglas 
Henry C. Frick 



Madison Grant 
Anson W. Hard 
Archer M. Huntington 
Arthur Curtiss James 
Walter B. James 

A. D. JuiLLIARD 

Seth Low 



Ogden Mills 
Percy R. Pyne 
John B. Trevor 
Felix M. Warburg 
George W. Wickersham 



EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 

Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
other parts of the world. The membership fees are. 

Annual Members $ 10 Fellows $ 500 

Sustaining Members (annually) ... 25 Patrons 1000 

Life Members 100 Associate Benefactors 10,000 

Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The hbrary is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. 

The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information 
concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public 
education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department 
for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also 
he arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. 

Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
-ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens 
for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1914 Numbers 6 and 7 

CONTENTS 

Cover, Scene of Fire Destruction in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, Idaho 

Frontispiece, Portrait of the late Morris K. Jesup, President of the American 

Museum from 1881 to 1908 218 

The Museum and the American People Henry Fairfield Osborn 219 

Research fund increased by the Morris K. Jesup endowment of five million dollars. Build- 
ing and maintenance still in the hands of the American people 

Series of Twelve Photographs Suggestive of the Progressive Policy of our Na- 
tional and State Governments in Regard to Forest Conservation 

Reproduced through the courtesy of the American Forestry Association and the New York 
State Forestry Association 

Forestry in the State of New York Mary Cynthia Dickerson 221 

With an introductory note regarding the interest of the Museum in forest conservation, 
through its former president, the late Morris K. Jesup 

Palaeolithic Art as Represented in the Collections of the American Museum 

George Grant MacCurdy 225 

New Faunal Conditions in the Canal Zone H. E. Anthony 239 

With flash-light photographs by Mr. George Shiras, 3d, and many photographs by the Author 

The Copper Queen Mine Model Edmund Otis Hovey 249 

Along Peace River Pliny E. Goddard 253 

"My Life with the Eskimo" Herbert L. Bridgman 261 

Review of a recent book by Stefansson 

Shell Collection in the American Museum L. P. Gratacap 267 

The shell collection in its new hall in the west wing of the third floor is now open to the public 
after having been closed for study and arrangemant during a period of three years 

Museum Notes 269 

Mary Cynthia Dickerson, Editor 

Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 
1907, at the Post-Offlce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal, 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




THE LATE MORRIS K. JESUP. PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL. 
HISTORY 1881 TO 1908. FROM WHOSE ESTATE HAS RECENTLY COME TO THIS MUSEUMI 
OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A BEQUEST OF FIVE MILLION DOLLARS 



?/f 



The American Museum Journal 



Volume XIV 



OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1914 



Numbers 6-7 



THE MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 



THE MORRIS K. JESUP ENDOWMENT FUND OF FIVE MILLION DOLLARS, A 
RECENT BEQUEST OF MRS. JESUP, RESTRICTED TO EDUCATIONAL AND 
SCIENTIFIC WORK.— MAINTENANCE AND BUILDING OF THE INSTITUTION 
STILL IN THE HANDS OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK CITY ACCORDING TO 
THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF FOUNDATION 

By Henry Fairfield Osborn 



THE Morris K. Jesup Endowment 
Fund, which comes to the Mu- 
seum through the bequest of 
Mrs. Jesup, marks another turning point 
in the history of the institution, and 
places the educational and scientific work 
on a firm foundation for all future time. 
In amount this is the largest gift which 
has ever been made to scientific educa- 
tion in the great City of New York, and if 
administered, as it will be, in an intelli- 
gent and patriotic spirit, it will doubtless 
exert a lasting influence upon the people 
not only of this municipality, but also of 
the entire country and even upon the 
peoples of all other countries. 

The American Museum has long 
ceased to be a civic institution and like its 
noble sister, the National Museum of 
V^'^ashington, has outgrown the bounds 
even of a national institution through 
close cooperation and cordial relations 
with similar organizations in all parts of 
the world. The Jesup Fund will streng- 
then and extend this spirit of enlighten- 
ment around the globe. Recalling the 
broad purpose of Mr. Jesup 's adminis- 
tration, we wish it were possible for him 
to witness the results which will flow 
from his benefaction. 

This endowment has been welcomed 
by our own Museum and by all other 



institutions of the country because of the 
example and the standard set to public- 
spirited citizens in other municipalities. 

A very wise restriction which sur- 
rounded Mr. Jesup's original bequest 
and which also obtains in this, is that 
no part of the interest shall he used for 
maintenance or for building. Mr. Jesup 
intended that the responsibility for the 
upkeep and construction of the Museum 
should rest upon the people of the City 
of New York, according to the original 
purpose of its foundation. He desired 
it always to remain a public institution — 
one which the people of our great muni- 
cipality can feel is in part their own, be- 
cause they build and maintain it. 

This, we believe, is an expression of the 
finest civic judgment. Indeed, the men 
who become known as great citizens 
through their personality or through 
their generosity, should not assume the 
duties and responsibilities of all citizen- 
ship. This is not the true American 
spirit and it is not the spirit which ani- 
mates an institution rightly known as 
"American." 

It is necessary to lay emphasis upon 
this important feature of our charter at 
the present time. We believe that the 
people of the City of New York have 
learned to love the Museum and to feel 

210 



220 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the inestimable advantages which it 
extends to all and particularly to the 
young, and we also believe that the 
people are willing to do their share in 
maintaining and in extending the build- 
ing, in order to make it possible to reap 
the benefits of this munificent fund. 



In the death of Mrs. Morris K. Jesup 
on June 17, 1914, the Museum lost 
another member of the original and dis- 
tinguished circle of its founders, for 
through her very close association with 
Mr. Jesup's interests and ambitions dur- 
ing his lifetime, and her constant sym- 
pathy in, and support of, all his plans 
and undertakings, we may always recall 
Mrs. Jesup's name with that of her hus- 
band. Her personal concern in the wel- 
fare of the Museum was not lessened but 
rather deepened after Mr. Jesup's death, 
because it was her earnest desire to repre- 
sent and continue his interests, and her 
judgment and her gifts were always 
guided by what she believed he would 
have wished her to do. Her visits to the 
Museum were full of association with his 
plans, and after the lapse of a few years 
became a source of increased delight. 

Mrs. Jesup's interest in the Museum, 
like that of her husband, was so broad 
that it extended to practically all depart- 
ments. One evidence of this is the char- 
acter and variety of her gifts to the 
institution. Among her early gifts was a 
large mass of pink tourmaline from San 
Diego, California, which enriched the 
collections of the department of mineral- 
ogy. Through her generosity the de- 
partment of anthropology received a 
large collection of ethnological material 
from the Arapaho. She also presented 
an important series of specimens illus- 
trating the industries, ceremonials and 



art of the Shoshone, Bannock, Ute and 
Kootenai Indians and later ethnological 
collections from the Gros Ventre, Assini- 
boine. Crow and Sioux. The department 
of vertebrate palaeontology is indebted to 
Mrs. Jesup for a skeleton of Tyrannosau- 
rus, a skull of Triceratops and other 
remains of dinosaurs of the Upper Creta- 
ceous beds of Montana. She also gave 
funds through which were obtained skulls 
and skeletons of Diadactes, Pariotichus, 
Dimetrodon and other primitive reptiles 
and amphibians of the Permian of Texas. 
The departments of invertebrate zoology 
and of mammalogy and ornithology were 
enriched by the collections that were se- 
cured through her generosity. 

Perhaps the most important of her 
gifts were the three Cape York meteor- 
ites — "Ahnighito," "Dog," and "Wo- 
man," presented to the Museum in 1908! 
These meteorites were brought from 
Cape York by Admiral Peary. "Ahni- 
ghito" is the largest known meteorite in 
the world, weighing thirty-six and one- 
half tons. 

In 1913 Mrs. Jesup offered to contri- 
bute $25,000, one-half of the sum needed, 
to equip the second Stefansson expedi- 
tion, but as Mr. Stefansson's work was 
taken up by the Canadian Government, 
Mrs. Jesup was never called upon to 
make this contribution. 

The pleasure which a great bequest 
gives to all the friends of the institution 
is shadowed by a feeling of sorrow when 
it comes with the loss of such a noble- 
hearted woman. It is true that Mrs. 
Jesup's name will endure in association 
with her many individual gifts, but we 
hope that the Trustees may find a way 
of perpetuating her memory in connec- 
tion with some special exhibition or col- 
lection. 



/ 

1.1 o 



SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
SUGGESTIVE OF THE PRO- 
GRESSIVE POLICY OF OUR 
NATIONAL AND STATE 
GOVERNMENTS IN REGARD 
TO FOREST CONSERVATION 



PLATES REPRODUCED THROUGH 
THE COURTESY OF THE AMERI- 
CAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 
AND THE NEW YORK STATE 
FORESTRY ASSOCIATION :-:-:-:-:-: 




IN THE COAST FOREST OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Such balsam and hemlock forests with trees two hundred feet hig-h may averag'e 
more than 100,000 board feet to the acre and are attractive investments for paper pulp. 
We must realize that trees of this size will probably never reappear on the cut-over land 
under any system of federal or state reforestation and protection, for the commercial 
demand will always be so great that trees of smaller size must satisfy it 



t^o 




PRIMEVAL FOREST IN NORTH CAROLINA 

In the Appalachians and White Mountains more than 1,100,000 acres have been 
acquired for national forest purposes. The various states concerned are in cooperation 
with the national government in giving fire protection to the forested watersheds com- 
manded by these lands, and federal management will aim to increase productivity in 
timber, grazing and other forest resources 




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Seed collecting- camp in a Rocky Mountain national forest. Note the sacks of cones, 
and the cones spread on canvas sheets to dry 




Planting western yellow pine in Pike National Forest. Pike's Peak (14,000 feet high) 
commands watersheds of great economic importance. Some fifty years ago, in the days of 
the early white settlers of the region, 10,000 acres of the forest cover were wholly destroyed 
by tire. The Forest Service is now reforesting the watersheds that supply water to 
Colorado Springs, Colorado City and other important districts 



lUO 




Area too rough for domestic animals, given over to mountain sheep, Mount Evans, 
Pike National Forest. Cooperation between State Game Departments and the National 
Biological Survey is placing game upon suitable unoccupied ranges. Two hundred 
elk were thus placed in 1913 




Summer camp in Crater National Forest, Oregon, under special use permit. 
National and state forests are great public playgrounds open to all who enjoy camping 
in a country of beautiful scenery and good sport 















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Z27 



FORESTRY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



By Mary Cynthia Dickerson 



Introductory Note: It chances that the American Museum, for the main part zoological 
and anthropological, has a practical interest in the forests of North America and their conservation. 
This interest is founded on the fact that some thirty years ago, in the pioneer days of the forestry 
movement, the former president of the American Museum, Morris K. Jesup, created here a depart- 
ment of woods and forestry and installed the greatest collection of tree specimens in the world, the 
Jesup Collection of North American Woods. 

We are to-day reminded of Mr. Jesup's interest in forestry, not alone by Mrs. Jesup's recent be- 
quest to the Museum which calls to mind all of her husband's long devotion to the institution, 
but also emphatically by the present condition of forestry in the state. If the forest reserves of 
to-day had existed in Mr. Jesup's time, he would have been filled with rejoicing at so great a con- 
summation of his desires. He urged that various forested lands be set aside as state forests, espe- 
cially certain areas in the Adirondacks controlling the watershed of the Hudson. His words are on 
record: "A wise and comprehensive state policy will seize upon the whole forest region [known as 
the Adirondack Wilderness] and keep it for all time as a great forest preserve and in this way 
insTU"e abundant water to the Hudson.." Mr. Jesup strove for this. He argued the matter 
before the Chamber of Commerce (1883) and even went to Albany and made personal appeal before 
a special committee of the Senate. He explained how forests store up rainfall, keeping it from 
evaporation and particularly the melting snows of high mountain ridges, and thus provide constant 
and equal water supply to the rivers which have their sources in the region. As a result of the 
campaign that he inaugurated, a law was passed creating an Adirondack preserve (1885). 



r 



'ORESTRY in the state of New 
York is flourishing everywhere 
except in the woods," was 
Gifford Pinchot's introduction to an 
address on the Adirondack forests be- 
fore the Camp Fire Club of America 
in 1911. This introduction was fol- 
lowed by an onslaught of facts in 
which non-use of the state's holdings in 
the Adirondack region combined with 
fires on these holdings, and bad logging 
and needless destruction combined with 
fires on the holdings in the hands of 
lumber companies and private individ- 
uals made out a very poor showing for 
New York. In the three years since 
that time there has been definite im- 
provement, yet the condition of forestry 
in the state has been unusual from the 
first and has truly flourished more in 
clubs, associations, commissions and 
even in legislatures than "in the woods." 
More than 1,800,000 acres of land 
constitute the forest reserves of New 



York State to-day.^ This is more than 
any other state has set aside, Penn- 
sylvania of pioneer interest and largely 
responsible for the movement in other 
states, coming nearest with 983,529 acres. 
Notwithstanding the satisfaction to 
be felt at this relatively large acquisition 
of state lands, a vigorous campaign has 
recently been waged and is still in prog- 
ress to bring about various changes in 
the laws of the statej for the greatest 
hindrance immediately in the way of 
progress is a matter of legislation. In 
1894 laws were passed prohibiting all 
direct use of the state reserves. The 
Constitution reads as follows (Section 7 
of Article 7) : " The lands of the state, 
now owned or hereafter acquired, con- 
stituting the forest preserve as now fixed 
by law, shall be forever kept as wild for- 
est lands. They shall not be leased, sold 

» 1,825,833 acres, in 6,850 parcels. Report of 
the New York Conservation Commission, Janu- 
ary 1, 1914. 

221 



222 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



or exchanged, or be taken by any cor- 
poration, public or private, nor shall the 
timber be sold, removed or destroyed." 

The people cannot lease camp sites in 
the forests or fish from the streams, 
whereas these state forests should con- 
stitute playgrounds for th( people as do 
the national forests, under special per- 
mits. All cutting of timbei is forbidden. 
Such prohibition was no doubt wise in 
1894 when past wastefulness and misuse 
needed a sharp lesson, in order to save 
the remaining forests for important 
watersheds, and when forestry was a 
rather vague thing and understood itself 
less well than in 1914. 

Now our national forests have pur- 
sued for a period of seven years the 
policy of utilization, of course under the 
control of trained foresters, and the 
policy has been proved wise, as it had 
been proved previously in Europe. 
Over-mature timber should be cut, for 
the sake of the younger timber and for 
the prevention of fire, to say nothing of 
the matter of revenue, and this cutting 
does not detract from the permanent 
value of the forest but enhances ^t 
instead. 

Besides in the twenty years between 
1894 and 1914 New York State has 
undergone important economic changes. 
There are three million people added to 
the six millions then in the state, crowded 
into the same cities, demanding food as 
well as wood and other materials for in- 
dustries from the same area as then. 
While there has been this increase in the 
ratio of population, there has been a de- 
crease in the ratio of wood-producing 
lands, by the very creation of a larger 
forest reserve, because of forest fires and 
particularly because of the continued 
marketing of crops from private and cor- 
poration-owned forests without provision 
for new growth of timber to take the 
place of these crops. 



To-day if it were not for the constitu- 
tional prohibition, utilization from state 
lands of just overgrown and dead timber 
(for trees are like all other living things in 
that they reach maturity and die), with- 
out injuring the forests either in their 
present protection of river sources or in 
their future timber supply, could give 
to the state a revenue of at least one 
million dollars annually. This would 
help to counterbalance the twenty to 
thirty million dollars sent out of the state 
every year for wood to use in industries. 

There has been in recent years notwith- 
standing, considerable legislation in New 
York regarding forestry matters. Each 
year the state has made various appropri- 
ations for fire prevention and reforesting, 
sums that seem large until viewed in re- 
lation to the magnitude of the work to be , 
done. There are laws enjoining stringent 
penalties for the negligent starting of fires. 
Since 1909 as a matter of fire preven- 
tion, lumbermen have been obliged to 
lop the branches from discarded tops of 
trees so that they will all lie close to the 
ground and decay quickly. 

There has been legislation (1912) 
especially intended for private owners 
who wish to grow trees. New York and 
Michigan are progressive beyond all 
other states in regard to taxation in such 
cases, the land being exempt or taxed at 
a low rate, the crop taxed only when cut. 

In 1913 an amendment to the consti- 
tution authorized the state to use its 
forest preserves (in amount not to exceed 
three per cent) for the development of 
water power and the establishment of a 
storage reservoir in the Adirondacks. 

Finally there seems now to be in sight 
for 1915, legislation touching the crucial 
points of the prohibition. In January, 
1914, a resolution was passed amending 
Section 7 of Article 7 of the constitution 
to allow the removal of mature and dead 
timber from the reserves, as well as to 



FORESTRY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



223 



permit leasing of camp sites. Like all 
constitutional amendments however, it 
must be brought before a second legis- 
lature and then run the gauntlet of the 
people's vote before it can become active 
law.^ The proposed amendment has re- 
ceived large attention within the state 
and without. If the prohibition should 
be removed and the state be given con- 
trol of the management of its forests 
on the principles of scientific reforesta- 
tion, culture and cutting, such as is add- 
ing to the economic advancement of our 
national forests. New York State will 
undoubtedly be assured a steadily in- 
creasing prosperity for the future. 

The state situation is one that calls for 
much constructive work with large 
appropriations to carry it through, and 
the work will later yield sustained finan- 
cial and other profitable returns just in 
proportion to the amounts expended in 
this preliminary preparation. New York 
used to be a great lumber-producing 
state. It was the greatest in the nation 
in 1850. It has now dropped to twenty- 
fourth rank. On the other hand New 
York is at present the greatest wood- 
consuming state in the Union, requiring 
approximately two billion board feet 
every year in the wood-using industries. 
It is thus easy to understand that we 
must annually send outside of the state 
for something approaching thirty mil- 

> This will mean that the amendment must pass 
a majority vote of the new legislature of January 
1915 and then be adopted or rejected by the 
people's vote in the fall of 1915, if adopted be- 
coming active law the following January. It 
chances however that this fall sees the election of 
delegates to a constitutional convention to meet 
next May — since the original constitution of 
New York State provides that a convention shall 
be elected at least once in twenty years for a re- 
drafting of constitutional law and the last such 
convention met in 1894. Thus it is a dramatic 
moment for forestry interests in that they can 
work for an active law allowing use of state lands 
and giving state- wide fire protection through two 
bodies, the regular legislature of 1915 and the con- 
stitutional convention, the latter like the former 
having power to pass a constitutional amend- 
ment directly to the people's vote if it so desires. 



lion dollars' worth of lumber — for 
Douglas fir, western cedar and redwood 
from across the whole breadth of the 
continent; for yellow pine and southern 
cypress from the Gulf States. 

The point is that New York can be 
made self-supporting in its wood indus- 
tries. No state in the Union is more 
advantageously equipped for profitable 
lumber production, in climate, rainfall, 
soil, facilities for marketing and amount 
of lands more suitable for tree crops than 
for agriculture. The estimate is that from 
twelve million to fourteen million acres 
in New York (seven millions of which are 
idle lands on the farms of the state) can 
eventually be given over to forest growth 
because not suitable for other purposes, 
while experts personally experienced in 
the study of the forests of Europe main- 
tain that fifty years of the right care 
ought to make many of our forests, the 
Adirondack region for instance, compare 
favorably or even surpass the Black 
Forest or any of the famous forests 
abroad. 

With these facts in mind and with the 
knowledge that to-day in our state re- 
serves even, immense areas are wholly 
cut over or burned and others are covered 
sparsely with trees of little value, review 
the situation in the state. Look ahead 
at what can and should be. Look at the 
present condition. Surely we are at the 
very beginning of the work, with little 
done except tree planting in relatively 
small amount, only enough to serve well 
as guide in future work, even though 
greater than has been done by any other 
state, and in addition a considerably 
increased protection of our forests from 
fire — although here only of the state 
forests for there is no state-wide fire 
law. Something over fifty observation 
towers have been built in the Adirondack 
and Catskill regions, on mountain heights 
from which the country through a radius 



224 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of twenty miles can be seen by the aid 
of field glasses. The necessary telephone 
connections have been made between the 
lookouts and neighboring villages. This 
system gives the right kind of protection 
but must be greatly extended before the 
state will be freed from forest fires. 

We are at the beginning of work which 
promises prosperity yet can scarcely set 
out on it for lack of the support of an 
ardent and united public sentiment 
throughout the state. The most impor- 
tant step toward obtaining this was 
taken somewhat over a year ago when 
the New York State Forestry Associa- 
tion was organized. This aims to co- 
ordinate all the forestry interests of the 
state, having on its executive committee 
representatives from each of the other 
organizations interested in particular 
aspects of the forestry question. It can 
speak of forestry authoritatively to the 
people and can stand authoritatively on 
forest problems between the people and 
legislative bodies. 

Another important step in advance 
was the creation of a state school for 
education in forestry with Dr. Hugh P. 
Baker, formerly of the Pennsylvania 
State College, at its head. This is 
known as the New York State College 
of Forestry and is in connection with 
Syracuse University. It is already mak- 
ing its influence felt not only in technical 
and practical forestry in forest camps 
and laboratory but also in lecture and 
exhibition work before all sorts of organi- 
zations and on all sorts of occasions. 
It is also taking active measures to 
further forestry teaching in the schools, 
hoping to reach the ijiterest of parents 
through the children. Thus it may be 
that if this amalgamation of forestry 
interests and widespread education con- 
tinue, a very few years will see New York 
State well started toward the great future 
the forestry prophets predict. 



To reach this future the state will 
extend its system of fire prevention to 
all the forests within its boundaries. 
Our state reserves will be increased by a 
still greater acreage, since forestry inter- 
ests must perforce remain in the hands of 
the government, the length of time before 
a crop can be financially realized on 
and the passing instead of permanent 
interest of the individual owner preclud- 
ing any great amount of private forestry 
practice — even though the crop be ex- 
empt from taxation during the period of 
growth. 

To reach this golden future the state's 
holdings will be kept outside of the in- 
fluence of politics and commercialism 
and the management will be in accord- 
ance with the judgment of the state's 
trained foresters. Steady progress will 
be made year after year in planting or 
naturally reforesting denuded areas un- 
til all mountain sides to timber line, all 
hillsides, all lands in any situation in- 
capable of producing agricultural crops 
of good quality, will be covered with 
deep forest. Wise systems of refores- 
tation will give also the varieties of wood 
best adapted for our definite industries, 
and scientific care may possibly so in- 
crease rapidity of growth that many 
of our cherished kinds of wood which 
we thought barred to us for the future 
because of their slow growth may be 
made to reach maturity in a fraction of 
the time required by nature's methods 
unaided. Conservative systems of cut- 
ting will yield state revenues year after 
year from marketing ripe timber, while 
there will still remain for to-day and 
for the future these same state forests, 
always unimpaired in their control 
of water supply and in their almost 
unrivaled beauty, as recreation places 
for those who are obliged to spend 
the greater number of their days in 
cities. 



PALEOLITHIC ART AS REPRESENTED IN THE COL- 
LECTIONS OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF 
NATURAL HISTORY 

By George Grant MacCurdy 

THE specimens that form the basis Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, presi- 
for this paper were collected dent of the American Museum of Natural 
during the summer of 1912 by History, and myself.^ They are of 




Carcnate flint scrapers from the Abri Blanchard (Dordogne), Middle Aurignacian Epoch. These 
and many other specimens obtained by the American Museum in 1912 are representative types of 
Aurignacian industrial remains similar to the original specimens found in 1863 in the cave of Aurignac 
and now in nearly all excavations of European caves and recognized as showing Aiu-ignacian culture 

I A map of southwestern Europe showing the principal cavern regions is to be found in the Decem- 
ber, 1912, Journal (opp. page 280). The map accompanies an article descriptive of the motor jour- 
ney taken by Professor Osborn and Professor MacCurdy to European palaeolithic caverns in 1912 when 
many valuable specimens were obtained to fill gaps in the American Museum series. The January ; 191 3, 
Journal contains a previous article by Professor MacCurdy on "Cultural Proof of Man's Antiquity." 

225 



226 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



especial importance because of their 
bearing on the technology and art of 
the upper palaeolithic period, and were 
selected with the especial object of filling 




Bone points from tlie A bri Hlanchard, Middle 
Aurignacian Epoch. The flint Industry was at a 
high stage in the Aurignacian Epoch and iater de- 
dhied as the malcing of implements and ornaments 
of bone Increased 



serious gaps in the Museum series. Of 
the three great art epochs, Aurignacian, 
Solutrean, and Magdalenian, we were 
fortunate in securing an original engrav- 
ing from two — the first and the last. 
Objects of personal adornment and 
industrial remains, especially type speci- 
mens, were also collected. 

The chief interest however centers in 
the two engravings, because of the policy 
of the French Government to reserve 
for itself everything in the line of palaeo- 
lithic art; and in this respect the Govern- 
ment has the support of public senti- 
ment. This spirit is not only easily 
understood, but also highly commenda- 
ble in view of the world-wide interest 
that attaches to the subject of Quater- 
nary art. Old masters come high; why 
not also the oldest masters? Each new • 
find is reported immediately to the 
Paris Academy of Sciences. Some half- ■ 
dozen Aurignacian engravings on mam- 
moth bone and on pebbles found on 
October 3, 1913, in the rock-shelter of 
La Colombiere, valley of the Ain, about 
thirty miles southwest of Geneva, were 
presented before the Paris Academy on 
October 20, and early in November full 
details of the find with illustrations 
were republished in New York City. 
The discovery at La Colombiere created 
unusual interest because in two instances 
the human form was represented. 

The names of the palaeolithic culture 
stages are now almost as familiar to the 
^■.eneral reader as are those of the geologic 
( pochs. Gabriel de Mortillet had more 
to do than any other one man with 
building up and popularizing this system 
of classification. To him however, does 
not belong the credit for introducing 
into the system the term " Aurignacian" 
and for placing it where it belongs, viz., 
between the Mousterian and Solutrean 
epochs; although at one time he was 
inclined to differentiate an additional 



PALEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



227 



epoch and call it the Aurignacian. He 
at first followed the lead of Lartet, the 
explorer of Aurignac, and placed the 
Aurignacian where it rightly belongs, 
but later placed it between the Solu- 
trean and Magdalenian, and finally 
dropped it altogether from his classifica- 
tion. Forty years ago Edouard Dupont 
of Brussels felt the need of an epoch not 
at that time provided for, which would 
include the culture stages represented in 
the caves of Montaigle and La Hastiere 
(Belgium) — namely, stages that are now 
known to be Aurignacian. It was 
however reserved for the Abbe H. 
Breuil, ably seconded by Cartailhac and 
Hutot, to differentiate and firmly estab- 
lish this culture. The name Aurigna- 
cian was well chosen because it was from 
the cave of Aurignac (Haute-Garonne), 
that industrial remains of the type in 
question were first reported [by Lartet 
in 1863]. 

Now one scarcely opens a cave in 
Europe without encountering Aurigna- 
cian deposits. Much of the pala?olithic 
mural art is likewise of Aurignacian age, 
proving the latter to have been the first 
great Quaternary art epoch. Then 
sculpture in the round and high relief 
flourished as they perhaps never did 
again, and the arts of engraving and of 
drawing in colors had their birth. A 
new race, the immediate ancestry of 
which has not yet been definitely traced, 
supplanted completely the archaic 
Neanderthal race of Mousterian times. 

Physically and mentally the Aurigna- 
■cians, of which Cro-Magnon and Combe- 
Capelle are examples, were more nearly 
akin to modern European races than to 
the old Mousterians. Like the latter 
however, they were still hunters. Cave 
regions such as the Vezere valley favored 
the increase of population and a more 
sedentary mode of life. In time this 
brought in its train a scarcity of game 



and fish, the chief food supply. These 
conditions evidently had much to do in 




Lateral gravers from the Abri Blanchard of 
the Middle Aurignacian Epoch. The Aurigna- 
cian artists used gravers made by beveling vari- 
ously shaped flints 



228 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the art development of that period. 
Nearly all the figures are of favorite 
game animals. Many of these are 
represented as hunted or wounded. 
These and perhaps many more are 
evidently votive offerings for success in 
the chase. Other scenes depicted are 
obviously intended to have a bearing 
on the multiplication of game. Art 
and magic therefore were thus early 
taught in the same school of necessity. 

The thickness of the Aurignacian 
deposits from caves and rock-shelters 
and the evolution of the culture there 
portrayed prove the epoch to have been 
a long one. Many Aurignacian loess 
stations have recently come to light 



making it possible to determine approxi- 
mately at least the relation of the Aurig- 
nacian epoch to glacial chronology. 
Aurignacian remains occur in the middle 
and upper part of the recent loess which 
is assigned to the Wiirm glacial epoch. 
Moreover in the cave deposits at Sirgen- 
stein and elsewhere, Schmidt has found 
immediately below the oldest Aurigna- 
cian layers an Arctic fauna characterized 
by Myodes ohensis, a species of lemming. 
The Aurignacian began therefore very 
near the maximum of the last glacial 
epoch. Schmidt believes this to have 
been the second and last maximum 
advance of the Wiirm glaciation, the 
one directly preceding the Achen retreat. 




Flint poinfet de la Oravetle from rock-shelter No. 2, Roches-de-Sergeac (Dordogne) 



^^^^^^^w ^ ^^^^^^^^^F 

^^^^^W ^^^^^^H 


^^^^^V 

v^^^^^^^ 


^M 


N 


■ "■ 1"- J 


.'< 




^1 


^^^K'i-- ^^^1 




^'9h 


j^l 


K)fl 








^^^H 


^^B ^^^^1 


^^K. :-^i^^^^^ 




^•j^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


^H 


1 2 






m| 


Ml 






V^ 


^^H 




^^■^ sl^l^^^^l 


V ' 1 


V^'\l 




H ^9 


W 1 


^B j^l 




^^^ '^^^^J^H 


L. '^ ^ 


^H ^H 






|M 


u 


^T^^^H 


^f -'^^^^1 


F 1 


■V 


^H *^^^^l 




1 fl 


■ ,^H 


^m ^'y'^^B 


^ " ■ ' . ' ^^^^^B 


r M 


1 w 






- nj^l 


1 w 


^^ '''^^^^^1 


Ls^i^i^^l^KKt^^^^^^^ 




^ ^H 






^^^^^H 


^^^^^^^^H 






MIH 


^Bi 



SIMPLE FLINT GRAVERS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UPPER AURIGNACIAN AGE 



This Aiirignacian Age toward the close of the Quaternary is thought to have been the time of a 
new race (Cro-Magnon) wliich had completely supplanted the race (Neanderthal) of the preceding 
epoch (Mousterian). The proof lies in such hiunan cultural remains as these flints together with the 
rare human fossil remains, and the associated animal fossil remains — the horse the dominant animal, 
the mammoth still floiu-ishing and the reindeer coming into prominence 

229 




The American Mnsexim contains tliese tallies or marques de chasses from Abri Blanchard (Dordogne) 
representing tlie Middle Atirignacian Epocli, interpreted as records made by Aurignacian himters 



We can thus picture the climatic condi- 
tions that attended the birth of Quater- 
nary art in western and central Europe; 
and climate is no mean factor in the 
environment of primitive man. Among 
other things it determines the character 
of the fauna and thus has a bearing on 
the fundamental problems of food-get- 
ting as well as defense. 

Upper Quaternary fauna may be 
reconstructed from the fossil remains 
associated with human cultural remains; 

230 



it is also reflected in the art of the time. 
Judging from both these sources one 
arrives at the conclusion that Aurigna- 
cians and Solutreans were contempo- 
raries of an Equus fauna with the horse 
predominating, the mammoth still abun- 
dant, the bison also plentiful, and the 
reindeer gaining in prominence. The 
horse and reindeer were dominant in 
the Magdalenian . Bos primigenius plays 
a secondary role in the art of the time 
and is not conspicuous for its fossil 



PALEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



231 



remains. On the other hand the one 
station of Solutre (Saone-et-Loire) has 
furnished skeletal remains of no less 
than one hundred thousand horses. 
Moreover in an inventory of Quaternary 
art the horse leads all with the possible 
exception of the bison. We are therefore 
justified in assuming that the steak of 
horse and bison, and not our indispensa- 
ble beef steak, was the piece de resistance 
at all well-regulated palaeolithic feasts. 
A short distance below Sergeac (Dor- 



dogne) on the left bank of the Vezere is 
a picturesque little valley cut in the 
limestone formation by a small brook, 
Ruisseau des Roches, tributary to the 
Vezere. This valley is flanked by 
shelters that have crumbled away until 
there is now little if any overhang left 
to the rocks, the entire group being 
referred to as Station des Roches. Several 
of these shelters were inhabited by 
palseolithic man. 

This region had been partially ex- 




Perforated teeth from the Abri Blanchard (Dordogne), of the Middle Aurignacian Epoch. Exca- 
vated caverns and rock-shelters yield large numbers of perforated teeth of the cave bear, lion and rein- 
deer, proving the love of adornment of the Aurignacian people 



232 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



plored by several prehistorians, includ- 
ing M. Reverdit (more than thirty years 
ago) and the Abbe Landesque. Recently 
M. L. Didon, proprietor of the Grand 
Hotel du Commerce et des Postes at 
Perigueux, took leases on some of the 
more promising shelters and began exca- 
vations. The excavations at the Abri 
Blanchard des Roches, a station rep- 
resenting the Middle Aurignacian Epoch, 
had been practically completed before 
our visit and a papsr ^ published on the 



the valley and within but little more 
than a stone's throw is the Abri Blanch- 
ard des Roches, from which likewise 
the New York museum secured a col- 
lection. 

When one comes to weigh the various 
elements in Aurignacian culture and 
compare them with Mousterian culture 
the differences are at once seen to be as 
great as the physical differences that 
separate Homo neandertalensis from the 
Aurignacian races. The change from 




Perforated shells used for personal adornment from the Abri Blanchard (Dordogne) of the Middle 
Am'ignacian Epoch 



results. Station No. 2 des Roches de 
Sergeac, belonging to the upper Aurig- 
nacian epoch had been partially explored 
by M. Didon who found there not only the 
large engraved figure of a horse but also 
many industrial remains of which the 
American Museum obtained the greater 
part. These objects were found halfway 
up the sloping hillside under a thick 
coating of talus that once formed the 
overhanging rock. Diagonally across 

> L. Didon In Bull. Soc. Hist, et Arch6ologique 
du Pfirlgord Pfirigueux, 1911. 



lower palaeolithic to upper palaeolithic 
is so great as to mark in all probability 
the invasion of a superior race with more 
advanced culture standards. This new 
race colonized practically the whole of 
the Mediterranean coast, African as 
well as European. The Aurignacians 
might have come from Africa. One can 
scarcely think of an oriental origin, for 
early Aurignacian culture has not as yet 
been found in Eastern Europe, as pointed 
out by Breuil. 

Lithically the Aurignacian was the 



PALEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



233 



epoch of the evolution of the bladelike 
flint flake, with its diversity of marginal 
retouches. In the lower levels the 
blades are large and thick with marginal 
notchings. Large, rude carenate scrap- 
ers appear, likewise the lateral type of 
graver, and the so-called pointe de 
Chdtelperron. Bone industry develops, 
the bone point with or without cleft 
base being the best known [page 226]. 
Sculpture is developed to a considerable 
extent, the female figurines from Bras- 
sempouy being examples. In the middle 
horizons the carenate scrapers multiply, 
diversify and become less bulky [page 
225] ; the scars left by the lamellar chip- 
ping are long and parallel. Gravers of 
many types are numerous [page 227]. 



The upper Aurignacian 

terized by the pointe de la i 
GraveUc [page 228], the ordi- 
nary graver [page 229], and 
a microlithic industry in 
which use is made of the 
splinters produced in the 
manufacture of gravers. 
Pedunculate points fore- 
shadowing the arrow head 
are also met with. The 
human figurines from Grim- 
aldi and Willendorf and the 
bas-reliefs from Laussel be- 
long to this stage. 

The American Museum 
possesses a series of records 
kept by Aurignacian hunt- 
ers, the so-called marques 
de chasse. Bone was gen- 
erally used for this purpose 
[page 230]. The collection 
also bears evidence to the 
love of ornament so typical 
of the Aurignacians in the 
perforated teeth of the 
cave bear, cave lion and rein- 
deer [page 231] as well as in 
perforated shells [page 232]. 



is charac- 



One curious fragment of limestone in 
the collection is perforated, for what 
purpose it would be difficult to say [page 
233] . The hole is pierced near the margin 
and was driven in at an angle from both 
sides to a meeting point. The block 
which is heavy might well have served 
as a weight. Or if the hole was made 
before the block became detached from 
the overhanging rock it must be con- 
sidered as a point of suspension. Didon 
found a number of such perforated 
blocks of stone. 

The principal piece in the New York 
collection is an engraved figure of a 
horse on a limestone slab, that was 
found in a deposit of upper Aurignacian 
age at rock-shelter No. 2 des Roches-de- 
Sergeac [page 236]. This figure, about 




Large fragment of limestone from Abri Blanchard (Dordogne). 
The artificial perforation is driven in at an angle from both sides 
to a meeting point, and the purpose is difficult to guess. The 
stone is heavy enough to have served as a weight 



234 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



sixty-eight centimeters in length, is cut 
rather deeply into the slab, the surface 
of which is rough and irregular and had 
never been prepared in advance for the 
engraving. Among the tools used by Au- 
rignacian artists were a variety of gravers 
made by beveling one or both ends of a 
bladelike flint flake. The work here 
was evidently done by a larger, heavier 
tool than the ordinary graver, as the 



incisions are not only deep, but also 
broad. Flint tools that might well have 
served to do the cutting were found in 
the same station [page 237]. The size of 
the tool and the irregularity of the sur- 
face account in some measure for the 
apparent crudity of the drawing, which 
might have been considered as belonging 
to an early rather than a late phase of 
Aurignacian engraving. 




Flint perforators of Middle Aurignacian Age ^;^From Abri Blancbard des Roches (Dordogne) 



PALEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



235 



The artist is at times un- 
certain in his stroke. The 
curve in the region of the 
short standing mane is ex- 
aggerated and it is difficult 
to account for the irregu- 
larity of the line that begins 
at the base of the ear and 
ends at the back of the 
neck, a little forward of the 
withers. In drawing the 
fore legs a false stroke was 
made that begins at the 
chest and passes downward 
slanting outward a little in 
front of the fore legs. The 
inability of the artist to 
represent the legs, both fore 
and hind, in profile is like- 
wise apparent. Each leg appears inde- 
pendent of its mate as if the two were 
seen from in front instead of from the 
side. On the other hand the shape of 
the body is characteristic for the small 
Quaternary horse of stocky build whose 
nearest living representatives are the 
horse from the desert of Gobi, Equus 
przewalsJcii, and the native horse on the 
lie d'Yeu off the west coast of France. 
That portion of the slab on which the 
tail and a portion of the outline of the 
hips were incised had been broken off 
and was not recovered by M. Didon. 

Discoveries of unusual importance 
have recently been made by the Abb^ 
Bouyssonie at the rock-shelter of Limeuil 
(Dordogne) on the west bank of the 
Vezere, opposite the point where it flows 
into the Dordogne. This station is of 
Magdalenian age and therefore of later 
date than the two shelters at Sergeac 
previously mentioned. Here also the 
artists left engravings on more or less 
shapeless slabs of limestone, seventy- 
nine of which have been recovered, and 
are now in the Musee des Antiquities 
Nationales at Saint-Germain. The ani- 




Flint-scrapers of upper Aurignacian Age from rock-shelter 
No. 2 des Roches-de- Sergeac 




Bone-polishers from the Abri Blanchard 




Upper Aurignacian horse from rock-shelter No. 2 des Roches-de-Sergeac (Dordogne). This fig- 
ure engraved on limestone is one of the principal specimens in the American Museum collection. The 
figure is about two feet in length and the lines are cut rather deeply. The gravers used must have been 
larger and heavier than those ordinarily found and in fact flint gravers strong enough for the work have 
been discovered. The general shape of the horse is typical of the stockily built Quaternary horse whose 
nearest living relatives are the species from the desert of Gobi, Equus przewalskii, and that native to the 
tie d' Yeu off the west coast of Prance 

It is rightly the policy of the French Government to set aside all caverns containing palseolothic 
drawings and paintings as national galleries of prehistoric art. Each discovery is reported at once to 
the Pans Academy of Sciences. Thus museums in America are never likely to display the originals and 
must depend on copies such as have been recently transferred to the walls of the hall of European pre- 
historic archaeology in the American Museimi 



mals that chiefly figure in this Hst are 
the reindeer, horse, bison, and wild goat. 
The most beautiful of all is the reindeer 
represented as browsing. For artistic 
merit it ranks with the celebrated rein- 
deer of Thaingen. 

Figures of the horse are no less inter- 
esting. They seem to comprise three 
fairly distinct types according to Capi- 
tan : first, a horse of slender build, small 
head and erect mane, corresponding to 
the modern ass; second, a true horse 
with short but large head, but rather 
slender body; third, a stocky, hairy 
horse with heavy mane. 

236 



In addition to the engravings on stone 
slabs some rare examples on bone were 
also found at Limeuil, one of which was 
obtained by us for the New York mu- 
seum. The figure in question is incised 
on a fragment of the metatarsal of a 
reindeer and is evidently one of at least 
two figures, probably a procession. The 
one most complete lacks the nose, 
upper part of the head including eyes 
and left ear, and the fore legs. The 
hind legs were never indicated. The 
line of the neck, back and tail forms a 
graceful sweeping curve. The ear is 
well drawn, the ear opening being 



PALEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



237 



suggested by an incised line. Its direc- 
tion, neither forward nor backward, and 
the general attitude of the figure sug- 
gest repose. The length from ear to 
root of tail is twenty-three millimeters. 
The only uncertain stroke of the graver 
is to be seen in the region of the throat. 
The numerous nearly vertical and paral- 
lel fine lines on the neck and back may 
not be of human workmanship, as 
similar lines are to be seen at the extreme 
left of the bone fragment and apparently 
not related to any animal figure. The 
figure of a second horse following at a 
short distance the first described, has 




been lost with the exception of the two 
ears. Here again the left ear is turned 
so as to show the opening. This speci- 
men represents a late phase of Mag- 
dalenian art. 

Wherever possible it has been the 
policy of the French Government to set 
aside as national monuments all caverns 
and rock-shelters in which are examples 
of palaeolithic mural art. These will ever 
remain galleries of prehistoric art. Only 
in one or two rare instances have parietal 
engravings or frescoes been cut from 
their original places. Such a step should 
be resorted to only when not to remove 
the art works would be to 
invite certain destruction. 
Where works of this nature 
are accessible and can be 
permanently protected, 
there is as little sense in 
removing them as there 
would be in removing the 
frescoes of Michelangelo 
from the Sistine Chapel. 
The museums of this coun- 
try are not likely ever to 
possess typical original ex- 
amples of palaeolithic mural 
art. The American Muse- 
um has acted wisely there- 
fore, in transferring to the 
walls of its hall of European 
prehistoric archaeology cop- 
ies of some notable originals 
from the French as well as 
the Spanish caverns. 



Probably crude graving tools; 
at the left from rock-shelter No. 2 
des Roches-de-Sergeac; at the 
right, from Abri Blanchard. 
These gravers are large and heavy 
enough to have served to cut deep 
lines In limestone as shown on the 
preceding page 




Water front of Panama City where the boats come in to market, in the early morning soon 
after day break, loaded with fruit and vegetables from the neighboring islands 



NEW FAUNAL CONDITIONS IN THE 
CANAL ZONE 

By H. E. Anthony 

With flash-light photographs taken by Mr. George Shiras and many photographs by the Author 



DURING the months of February 
and March of this year it was 
the good fortune of the author 
to accompany, as an American Museum 
representative, Mr. George Shiras, 3d, 
on a trip to the Canal Zone. Mr. 
Shiras desired to obtain photographs by 
flash Hght of the animal life of that 
region, a method of which he is one of 
the foremost exponents to-day and 



Editorial Note: The expedition worked imder 
authority from the Canal Commission. It is of 
note that Colonel Goethals, as the first civil 
governor of the Canal Zone, continues adherence 
to the policy he maintained during the engineering 
work in the region — namely, that the isthmus 
shall be a game preserve. Exception to the 
observance of the laws against shooting game 
outside a short open season will be made only in 
favor of such occasional zo51ogical expeditions 



which has yielded him some remarkable 
results in temperate regions. It was 
through his generosity that the Museum 
was able to send a collector to Panama 
with him. 

It was expected that faunal conditions 
in the Canal Zone would be undergoing 
abrupt changes because of the damming 
of Gatun Lake and the consequent ex- 
tensive high water. From a basin with 
no lake worthy the name, with standing 
water confined largely to marshy areas 
except during the height of the rainy 
season, the Gatun region has been trans- 
formed by the huge dam at the locks 
into a lake of one hundred and sixty-four 
square miles in extent and a depth of 
seventy to eighty feet in many places. 

239 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



This flooding of ground formerly high 
and dry, it was anticipated, would drive 
many animals to seek new homes or 
might even threaten some of the more 
restricted, lowland-living animals with 
extermination. Incidentally many of 
the islands and ridge crests left above 
water might have a concentrated fauna 
driven there from the adjacent flooded 
localities. Other phases of the question 
dealing with the newly created lake, were 



vestigation, it was planned to work from 
a house boat as a base camp with a 
launch and small boats for side trips. 
Accordingly a boathouse was made over 
by a few alterations, but only after 
considerable time had been spent in 
trying to secure something available for 
the purpose. The house boat was so 
low in the water that she could be towed 
only in a calm sea, a condition of the 
lake only rarely met with, and at the best 




It was because of the flooding of the GatGn Lake basin by the huge dam at the Gatfln loclts. 
thus causing abrupt changes in the faunal conditions, that an expedition under the patronage of 
Mr. George Shiras, 3d, was undertaken. The house-boat formed the base camp from which trips. 
were made by launch or small boat, sometimes along rivers which heretofore have been inaccessible 
owing to shallow water. The house-boat had sides of cheese cloth and copper screen to keep out; 
mosquitoes 



the wiping out of the lowland forests by 
submergence, the rise of new aquatic 
flora such as the water hyacinth, and 
the probable inhabitation of the lake 
by water birds. Such were some of the 
items in the purpose of the expedition 
and we were equipped to take advantage 
of these new conditions if the foregoing 
assumptions proved correct. 

As Gatun Lake was the center of in- 



the launch could make but slow time 
pulling her. Late afternoon of March 6 
saw us leaving Gatun with the house 
boat and by three o'clock the next morn- 
ing we were tied up at the head of a 
water-way or trocha that branched off 
from the Rio Trinidad. This was our 
main camp and we hoped to be able to 
work the undisturbed jungle from here. 
Unfortunately, a plantation near by, a 



FAUNAL CONDITIONS IN THE CANAL ZONE 



241 



young fruit district only recently made 
accessible by high water, chose this 
time to burn over some clearings and 
we found that the smoke materially 
interfered with our success. Cameras 
with flash lights and bait were set out in 
promising spots, lines of traps for 
mammals were run daily, while the 
jungle was hunted in hopes of shooting 
specimens. 

It was at this spot that we made the 
acquaintance of the largest of the Pana- 
manian monkeys, the "black howlers." 
Frequently their queer booming, roaring, 
howl echoed through the jungle, a call 



that carries for long distances. 
howl oftenest just before or dur- 
ing a rain storm and the natives 
thus look upon them as weather 
prophets. Upon one occasion I 
stood almost under some trees 
through which a troop was 
passing, while the first big pre- 
liminary drops of a sudden 
shower pattered upon the leaves 
about me. The volume of 
sound that issued from the black 
shaggy throats was so great and 
so suggestive of a large animal, 
a lion for example, that I found 
it hard to reconcile myself to the 
actual facts. I felt a pang of 
regret at silencing one of the 
"howlers" but as a specimen 
was needed I shot one of the 
foremost and heard him crash 
through the limbs to the ground. 
Pangs of a more effective sort 
were experienced when my na- 
tive boy and I attempted to 
retrieve the monkey, for he had 
fallen underneath a bees' nest 
the size of a bushel basket and 
we found the nest too late to 
avoid it. 

Other interesting mammals 
encountered here were the 



They 



pretty squirrel-like marmoset, the short- 
haired anteater and several species of 
opossum, while we were continually won- 
dering at the variety of the bird life and 
the diversity of the bird songs and call- 
notes. The noisy parrots that shouted 
in the morning until the jungle rang 
with their tumult, the grotesque toucans 
which at times vied with the parrots, the 
calling of the parrakeets and the peculiar 
chorus-like calls of the chachalaca, or 
"wild turkey," produced an impression 
that must ever be associated with jungle 
memories. At night mysterious noises 
were heard from unknowTi sources and 
one weird laughing call in particular 




The black howlei, the largest of the Panamanian 
monkeys, is looked upon by the natives as a weather 
prophet, its loud, long and reverberating howl being 
most frequently heard just preceding a heavy rain 




The common method of navigation of small streams by the native Panamanians is by means 
of the cayuca or dugout, which varies in length from eight to thirty-five feet, and is cut from a sin- 
gle tree. These boats are used by the natives for bringing fruit and produce to market and it is 
a common sight to see them loaded with sugar cane cut in sections eight or ten feet in length 




Scene on the Rio ChilibriUo up which trips wore made to visit the bat caves. As palms never 
grow in water, something of the extent of the flooding of this region can be judged 
242 



FAUNAL CONDITIONS IN THE CANAL ZONE 



243 



caused conjecture to run rife, there 
being as many opinions as there were 
listeners. 

Besides the work done on the Rio 
Trinidad, several long trips by launch 
were made up the Rio Chagres, one as 
far up the river as the launch could as- 
cend and two others up the Rio Chilibrillo 
to some limestone caves for bats. On 
these trips it was found that the rising 
waters had ascended far up the river 
valleys, which in this part of the region 
have very little fall, making them navi- 
gable to launches where formerly it 
would have been impossible to take a 
cayuca or native dugout. Some of 
these flooded rivers — rivers by courtesy, 
for in the States these streams would be 
called creeks — with their banks densely 
lined by jungle vegetation which met 
overhead and dropped long vines and 
streamers into the waters, were very 
beautiful. 

Everywhere we found the forest 
inundated. In regions early flooded, 
where the trees were submerged for the 
greater part of their height, all the trees 
were dead and leafless with an occasional 
great clump of orchids, the only green 
left. Many square miles of the sur- 
face of Gatun Lake are thickly studded 
with dead tree-tops of what was at one 
time splendid tropical forest. In regions 
of later high water many of the trees 
were still green and blossoming; espe- 
cially was this so along the shores where 
but the lower part of the tree trunks 
were under water. It is not improbable 
that some of the more resistant trees 
may live to a ripe old age with their 
roots some feet below the surface of 
Oattin Lake, for some species were found 
flourishing among their long since dead 
companions. No new aquatic growth, 
■arisen to take advantage of the altered 
conditions, was noted, but the condi- 
tions had probably not been in operation 



long enough to bring about such a growth. 
The dead trees are constantly falling 
and the far-reaching crash of their 
descent is one of the common sounds of 
the lake. 

Gatun Lake will undoubtedly pro- 
duce new economic conditions among the 
natives of the adjacent district. These 
natives formerly had no other water- 
ways but the few rivers that traversed 
the interior basin, and were available 
for navigation only to a limited number 
of villages. Such rivers were the 
Chagres, Trinidad and Gatun. Now 
the far-extending lake shores provide 
such an accessible waterway that the 
natives are learning to navigate on lake 
waters, and every morning their cayucas 
may be seen lined up at the native 
market along the lock-front at Gatun. 
Being primarily river boatmen however, 
they are yet somewhat distrustful of 
the lake winds and do most of their 
traveling at night when the winds die 
down. During the dry season, from 
January to April, the winds blow across 
the lake toward a northern quarter of 
the compass and just the reverse holds 
true for the rest of the year. This wind 
at times becomes strong enough to 
threaten small boats seriously, and at 
practically all times of the day would 
be a strong check on the progress of 
the native dugout that was facing it. 
We found it necessary to move the house 
boat always at night and in the early 
morning hours because of this wind, 
and this proved a serious obstacle to 
working many localities, because it was 
out of the question to run at night with- 
out a moon, and when we most wished 
to move we had a late rising moon. 
After driving the launch full-tilt over 
a floating tree and into partially sub- 
merged bush and tree tops, trying to 
steer by lantern light, we confined our 
future movements to moonlit hours. 




The low entrance to limestone cave on the Chilibrillo River opens into a series of long corri- 
dors and chambers more or less intercommunicating 





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Bk '>:Mieir«i>-'<' 




^^^^mmB^^I 




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iJl^^l 


NfW^ 


M 


i<<- -«' ; *J^ 


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Flash light photograph of bats. They were 
Isolated by species and sexes, each species con- 
fined to a particular grotto whore it wtis found 
In hundreds and the bats of each mass all of 
the same sex 

244 



Whenever one left the waters of 
Gatun Lake the dense, unaltered jungle 
was at once encountered and no matter 
how much its beauty was to be admired 
from the boat, its impenetrability was 
no less to be deplored. It was useless 
to attempt to leave the trail without 
recourse to the machete, the long brush 
knife of Latin America, and many were 
the varieties of briars and thorns to be 
avoided. Once into the thick growth of 
the jungle, the hunter found it necessary 
to stand minutes in one spot in order to 
look into all the arboreal nooks and 
crannies, so many were the possibilities, 
so many the great orchid-covered limbs 
and wide branching trees, and so loath 
to move the denizens of the jungle. 
The orchids and epiphytic air plants 
were very abundant and became so 
heavy a burden at times as to break 
down the limb or even the entire tree 
that harbored them, and not infrequently 
1 witnessed the downfall of some tree 
overburdened in this manner, once in- 




Photograph by George Shiras, Sd 
Flash light of small cluster of bats before alarmed. Clusters are ordinarily formed of a great 
number of individuals, probably several hundred in some Instances. The variety shown is one of 
the largest of South American bats, one specimen secured having a wing expanse of twenty-six 
inches. The bats are strong and muscular and always ready to bite. The masses of bats bear a 
close resemblance in form to the stalactites with which the walls and domed ceilings are covered 



deed warned by a premonitory cracking, 
I was forced to move with considerable 
speed to escape a flying limb. 

Mosquitoes, the former bane of early 
Canal days, were found 
tut sparingly. Even 
outside the district of 
government patrol we 
were bothered but little 
by them, although we 
were told that later, 
during the rainy season, 
they were much worse. 
A few spots were en- 
countered where mos- 
quitoes were bother- 
some, thus arguing a 
local distribution. The 
ticks and red bugs how- 
ever made up in dili- 
gence for any slights 
we might feel we had 
suffered from not being 
met by mosquitoes. 
The jungle everywhere 
seemed to harbor these 
pests and they did al 1 
they could to make life 
miserable for us. Ants 
also were found in 
abundance and it was 
fortunate indeed that 
our camp was a float- 
ing one and thus cut 



off from inroads of these nuisances. 
One species of ant in particular will be 
long remembered by two members of 
the party, for it stung with a venomous 




In a bat cave. Showing method of photographing bats by flash 
light. As the flash-light powder used is exceedingly explosive the 
expression of apprehension on the face of the operator is not to be 
wondered at 

245 



246 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



vigor never equalled by any bee and 
made the victim imagine he had been 
struck by a snake at least. 

Concentration of animal life had 
taken place at the rising of Gatun Lake, 
and most of the islands formed had 
many inhabitants at first. The Gatun 
Hunt Club however soon reduced the 
population of these islands by hunting 
them with hounds and as the quarry in 
most instances could not leave the 
island the result was a clean sweep of all 
the larger species. We were too late, 
consequently, to find abundant game 
on any of the islands near Gatun. I 
accompanied this Hunt Club on one 
occasion, securing two peccaries. 

The most efficient method of hunting 
the Panamanian jungle was by means 
of a headlight at night. The rays of the 



light, worn on the hunter's head, are 
reflected by the eyes of the animal which 
shine like two orbs of fire — red, green or 
bluish depending on the animal " shone." 
The hunted animal will see nothing but 
the approaching light and falls an easy 
victim to the rifle or shotgun. On 
account of the danger to domestic stock 
and to people by promiscuous shooting 
at night, this method has been pro- 
hibited on the Zone but beyond Zone 
limits it is to-day the favorite mode. 

The trip resulted in a good series of 
flash-light photographs of opossums and 
some of the smaller mammals. The 
apparatus for "flashing" the animals 
was set out by some runway or water- 
course where animals were apt to pass, 
and consisted of a mechanism to fire a 
magnesium flash and at the same time 




Photograph by Oeorge Shiran, Sd 

riash-ljght picture of paca I Agouti paca virgata), one of the largest of the existing rodents, the 
closely-related carybara alone exceeding it in size. The paca is an animal of nocturnal habits and 
therefore can be photographed only by means of flash-light apparatus set at night. Note In the 
animal's mouth the mango which was used as bait. This is one of the game animals of the natives 
who call it conejo pintado or spotted "rabbit" 



FAUNAL CONDITIONS IN THE CANAL ZONE 



247 



trip the shutter of the cam- 
era which was fastened in 
a manner to command the 
trail. A thread attached to 
a bait and stretched out 
before the camera, fired the 
flash when the animal pulled 
it. 

Series of the rodents and 
the smaller mammals were 
secured for the Museum col- 
lections and for the most 
part are of species not hith- 
erto represented . The ti me 
was too limited to secure 
many of the larger mammals 
which are found in the Zone. 

The expedition was great- 
ly helped by assistance from 
the Canal Commission. 
Colonel Goethals issued 
special permits allowing collections to be 
made and at every turn we were assured 
the cooperation of the Zone authorities. 
Aside from the help received through 
official channels the members of the ex- 
pedition were tendered assistance by the 




Photoornph by George Shiras, 3d 
Flash-light photograph of one of several varieties of opossums 
encountered in the Canal Zone. The particular opossum shown 
is the commonest species and by reason of its abundance and 
its omnivorous appetite, it proved a serious obstacle to flash- 
light photography. Probably seventy-five per cent of the 
flashes flred wore sprung by opossums who found and flred the 
camera shortly after dusk before better game was moving 



residents. They found such a friendly 
spirit that many of the inconveniences 
of foreign travel disappeared, and it was 
with genuine regret that we left that bit 
of the States transplanted into Panama 
and known as the Canal Zone. 




Lake end of Gatun locks looking out over GatuQ Lake. Three different stages in filling the 
locks are shown, the lock at the left being empty, the one in the lower right-hand corner half full 
and the one in the upper right hand corner full. Emergency dams are seen in the background. 
Four locomotives similar to the one shown are to be used for each ship, two being in front and two 
in the rear 




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5 2 



THE COPPER QUEEN MINE MODEL 
By Edmund Otis Hovey 



EARLY in 1910, Professor James 
Douglas of New York City, noti- 
fied the authorities of the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History that he 
was prepared to furnish the data and the 
means necessary for the construction of a 
large scale model of the Copper Queen 
Consolidated Mining Company's prop- 
erty at Bisbee, Arizona, along lines which 
have proved so successful and popular in 
the Museum in representation of birds in 
their habitats. 

Accordingly in August of that year, 
the writer started for the Southwest, 
taking with him Arthur Briesemeister, 
a thoroughly trained and successful map- 
maker, William B. Peters, a preparator 
of long experience connected with the 
department of preparation of the Mu- 
seum, and Thomas Lunt, the Museum's 
official photographer. Soon after arriv- 
ing at Bisbee the party, under the leader- 
ship of E. F. Pelton, chief engineer of the 
Copper Queen Company, went into the 
field and determined upon the point of 
view from which the picture of the model 
as a whole with its proposed painted 
background should be obtained. In 
the model to-day practically the same 
view is spread before a person who 
stands in the middle of the platform in 
front of the model. 

A scale of twenty-four feet to the inch 
had been decided upon for the reproduc- 
tion, hence it was necessary to go into 
great detail in making photographic and 
other notes and in drawing base maps. 
The Company had a map on the scale of 
eighty feet to the inch with twenty-foot 
contours. Taking this as a foundation, 
Mr. Briesemeister corrected and brought 
up to date, roads, buildings and contours, 
intercalated five-foot contours and noted 
rock ledges and other peculiarities of the 



surface. Record was made of the color 
of paint on each building, the nature of 
the material used in construction, the 
shape and character of the roof, the posi- 
tion and nature of vines, shrubs and trees, 
and in fact all other features that would 
be useful in making a naturalistic repro- 
duction of the region determined upon as 
the portion to be represented. This 
area is Z-shaped, the back of the L being 
curved, with extreme dimensions of 18 
feet 6 inches by 11 feet 2 inches, repre- 
senting an area 5315 feet long by 3418 
feet wide. Numerous color sketches 
were made by Mr. Peters and plants 
were collected by him, all of which 
have been useful in getting the surface 
features to look natural. Oil sketches 
made by Mr. Lunt together with photo- 
graphs made by Mr. Lunt and myself, 
were used by Bruce Horsfall, the nature 
artist, in painting the background. 

After spending several weeks in the 
field, the party returned one by one to- 
New York and in F'ebruary, 1911, the 
active construction of the model was 
begun. The map sheets were enlarged 
to the required scale and all the detail 
entered upon them. Wooden boards 
2j of an inch thick, representing the 
distance between two consecutive five- 
foot contours were cut according to the 
contours and built up on sectional foun- 
dations, there being six sections in all 
in the model. The exposed edges of 
these boards, therefore, corresponded 
to the contours of the enlarged map. 
Then the surface was modeled on in 
clay b}^ Mr. Briesemeister, assisted 
by his son, William Briesemeister, utiliz- 
ing the photographs constantly in mak- 
ing the surface approach nature in its 
appearance. After the clay surface was 
finished J. C. Bell, the Museum's 

249 




Copper Queen Mine model. Wooden core of one section of the Copper Queen Mine model. 
It was built up of boards 2\ of an inch thick, the exposed edge of each representing a five-foot contour 
of the map 



plaster-worker, made piece molds and 
plaster copies of the sections, one set of 
which was sent out to the Company at 
Bisbee for the use of the engineering and 
geological departments of the mine. 

The construction of the head frames, 
shaft houses, loading bins, dwelling 
houses and other buildings within the 
area represented was no small task, inas- 
much as there were several hundred of 



them to be made. After experimenting 
with wood, plaster and other materials, 
we finally made the metal buildings, 
which are corrugated iron in the field, 
out of brass covered with thin sheet zinc 
scored to scale to represent the corruga- 
tions, while the dwelling houses and 
other small structures were made of 
cardboard. The head frames, loading 
bins, railroad tracks, locomotives, cars 




One section of Copper Queen Mine model, showing the surface of clay modeled upon the wood- 
en core. It is ready for making the mold from which to cast the final surface in plaster 
260 



COPPER QUEEN MINE MODEL 



251 



and the like, are made of brass. The 
cardboard houses were made by H. 
Bierce; the metal work was done by 
Frank O. Crich. Cutting the contours 
and building the wooden portion of the 
model was done by Mr. Briesemeister 
aided by Andrew Latzko and Prentice 
B. Hill. 

When the model was originally pro- 
jected, the plan was to represent only 
the surface with a painted background 
showing the surrounding mountains, but 
there became evident as soon as work was 
actively begun, the desirability of repre- 
senting the underground workings of the 
mine too, as fully as might be practicable. 
It was decided furthermore, to build a 
working model of a single stope on a scale 
of six feet to the i^ich to represent details 
that could not be indicated on the big 
model. 

The representation of the underground 
portion on the large model was a matter 
of serious difficulty and led to the making 
of several experiments. Finally it was 
decided to excavate the under portion 
of the model and to put into the hollows 
thus formed, reproductions of the stopes 
in solid wood cut according to the de- 
tailed plans of the levels as furnished 
by the engineers of the Company. 
Tunnels, raises, winzes and shafts were 
likewise constructed to scale according 
to these plans and inserted in their 
proper places, the result being a very 
satisfactory representation of the stoped- 
out ore bodies lying between the Czar 
and the Lowell shafts, which are a mile 
apart. No effort whatever has been 
made to represent or even to indicate 
the position of ore bodies which have not 
been exploited. In sawing out and 
building up these stope models, Mr. 
Hill's practical knowledge gained through 
several years' work underground as a 
miner in the Southwest has been of 
great value. The sides of the model 



have been used to' give the geological 
sections along several vertical planes 
from 4100 feet above the sea up to 5900 
feet on the Queen Hill, according to data 
furnished by Arthur Notman and Max 
Roesler, the geologists of the company. 

The large-scale stope model is based 
upon data derived mostly from the 
Gardner Mine, the distance from surface 
to stope and from stope to main shaft 
being lessened and the position of the 
waste dump and loading bin with refer- 
ence to the head frame being changed to 
meet the requirements of our limited 
space, but the square sets, man ways, ore 
sheets, tunnels, shaft and machinery 
have been built to scale from the plans 
of the actual work and photographs. 
The engine, however, is driven by an 
electric motor with automatic reverse, 
cunningly devised by Mr. Crich, con- 
cealed underneath the shaft house. 

All the work was done in the Museum 
under my immediate direction, with 
assistance and advice in supervision from 
Dr. James Douglas and the engineers 
and geologists of the company during the 
progress of the work. Furthermore we 
utilized to the full the results of Freder- 
ick L. Ransome's exhaustive study of 
the region as published in the Bisbee 
Folio (No. 112) and Professional Paper 
No. 21, issued by the United States 
Geological Survey. The model repre- 
sents the region as it was in August and 
September, 1910, it being impracticable 
to keep pace in the model with the 
changes constantly being made at an 
active mine. 

The present property of the Copper 
Queen Consolidated Mining Company 
consists of 194 claims, covering about 
21,350 acres of land. The rocks in which 
the ores of copper occur at Bisbee are 
Palaeozoic limestones and sandstones, 
which have been much disturbed and 
faulted and have been penetrated in 



252 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



places by dikes and bosses of granite por- 
phyry, an igneous rock. The fault zones 
and intrusions were probably the chan- 
nels through which the ore reached the 
limestones. Subsequent to their depo- 
sition, these zones and adjacent rocks 
have been altered and converted into 
masses of highly ferruginous and man- 
ganiferous clays and other products, lo- 
cally known as "ledge matter," within 
which the profitable ores have been rede- 
posited by a process of natural concentra- 
tion as secondary oxydized (malachite, 
azurite, cuprite) and secondary sulphide 
(chalcocite) minerals. This extensive 
alteration is confined to the carbonifer- 
ous limestones, but as the model shows, 
masses of unaltered ore (sulphides) have 
been met with, imbedded in the Devo- 
nian and even in the Cambrian strata. 

The ore is raised to the surface through 
one central shaft, the Sacramento, 
though access to the different sections of 
the mine is obtained through six subsidi- 
ary shafts, four of which are shown in 
the model: the Holbrook, Spray, Gard- 
ner and Lowell. The mine is opened by 
fifteen levels one hundred feet apart 
vertically, the ore bodies between the 
various levels being reached by upraises, 
or by descending passages called winzes. 
As the ore is extracted, the exposed 
ground must be supported by timbers 
and the vacant space filled with waste 
rock to insure safety. The ore as ex- 
tracted is thrown down to the next 
lower level through chutes, from which 
it is transported in small cars drawn by 
«lectric locomotives to the central shaft. 

From the Sacramento shaft the ore 
is dumped onto a belt-conveyor which 
distributes it into waiting trains of rail- 
road cars. This operation mixes the 
ores from different stopes to some ex- 
tent. The trains take the ore to Doug- 
las, Arizona, twenty miles away where 



the great smelter is located. There the 
ore is dumped into long pits or " beds " 
between the railroad tracks, further 
mixing of the material being accom- 
plished during this operation. Hither, 
are brought also sulphide ores as concen- 
trates from the mines at Nacozari, So- 
nora, Mexico, for admixture with the 
Bisbee ores, which are too largely car- 
bonates and oxides for economical 
smelting by themselves. Steam shovels 
transfer the mixed ores from the beds to 
cars for the final journey to the smelter, 
where together with the proper amounts 
of coke and limestone they go into the 
blast furnaces and thence into the con- 
verters. The copper ingots which re- 
sult from this treatment are brought to 
New York to be refined, the final 
products being pure copper and con- 
siderable quantities of silver and gold. 

The first claim actively worked was 
the Copper Queen, on which operations 
were begun in the summer of 1880 by 
the Copper Queen Mining Company. 
In the following year, exploration was 
begun in the neighboring claims by the 
Atlanta Mining Company. In 1885, 
the two companies consolidated as the 
Copper Queen Consolidated Mining 
Company. Subsequently, the proper- 
ties of the Holbrook and Cave Mining 
Company, the Neptune Mining Com- 
pany and the Lowell and Arizona Min- 
ing Company were acquired and other 
claims bought. 

From the time when mining was be- 
gun in 1880 up to the end of the year 
1912, there were extracted from these 
mines 7,729,922 tons of ore of an average 
copper content of 7.16 per cent. The 
metal production in this period was as 
follows : copper, 1,106,605,774 pounds 
(553,303 tons); gold, 104,775 ounces 
Troy (8,731 pounds) ; silver, 6,107,421 
ounces Troy (508,952 pounds). 




View north from the high banlcs of the Peace River at Fort St. John, showing the islands at a stage 
of low water in the river. In three hundred miles there are some two hundred islands wooded with 
spruce and pine 

ALONG PEACE RIVER 



By Pliny E. Goddard 



THE Peace River was first brought 
to the notice of the world by 
§ Alexander Mackenzie. Not 
satisfied with following to the Arctic 
Ocean the river which bears his name, he 
went up the Peace River, crossed the 
Rocky Mountains and made his way to 
the Pacific Ocean which he reached in 
September, 1793. The previous winter 
he had spent at Fort MacLeod, built for 
his convenience and afterwards contin- 
ued as a trading post. Fort MacLeod is 
located on the north side of Peace River 
six miles above Peace River Crossing 
and nearly opposite the mouth of Smoky 
River. From that time until 1879 trade 
goods were brought to Fort MacLeod 
from Montreal or York Factory on 
Hudson Bay in canoes or York boats. 
In 1878 however, a road was cut from 
Lesser Slave Lake to Peace River Cross- 
ing, a distance of ninety miles, and the 
trade route was changed. The goods 
were taken up the north branch of the 
Saskatchewan River on steamers to 



Edmonton, then by Red River carts 
drawn by oxen to Athabasca Landing, 




The Museum expedition visited Ft. Vermil- 
ion, then proceeded upstream to Ft. St. John, be- 
fore retiu-ning to Edmonton en route for the East 

25S 




One of the many islands of the Peace River, heavily wooded with spruce which the Dominion 
Government does not allow cut. The river was liquid mud carrying driftwood and logs 



Edmonton and from there by York boats 
and carts to the Peace. 

Regardless of the route and means of 
transportation, the trading customs re- 
mained unchanged. Each fall the trad- 
ing post supplied the Indians with 
powder, shot and balls, traps, tea and 
tobacco. These were usually given on 
credit, or as they still say in the North, 
"in debt." When winter set in, the 




Hudson's Bay steamer making a landing at Fort St. John. 
It carries settlers' freight as well as provisions for the various 
IKMts and brings back furs 
264 



Indians went out to their trapping 
grounds. The man of the family es- 
tablished a line of traps and snares 
fifteen or twenty miles long and went 
back and forth over this line throughout 
the winter. When he found a beaver 
house he chiseled through it, having first 
made an enclosure so the beaver could 
not escape. The skins obtained in this 
way were brought to the trading post in 
the spring. On arrival, the 
Indian received a present of 
tea and tobacco and in later 
years, flour. When he be- 
gan trading, his "debt" was 
first covered, then he bought 
provisions, calicoes, blan- 
kets, and whatever his heart 
desired. All trading was 
done on a basis of "made 
beaver," a mere term used 
in trade and indicating at 
the present time on the 
Peace River an arbitrary 
value of thirty-three and a 
third cents. During the 
summer it was easy to live 
on the rabbits caught in 
snares by the women. One 



ALONG PEACE RIVER 



255 



or two moose hunts supplied a quantity 
of more nourishing food, some of which 
was put aside for winter. 

So the years passed until the empty 
stomachs of Europe cried for more 
wheat. When the easily plowed and 
more accessible lands of Manitoba and 
Saskatchewan had been sparsely settled 
and pioneers had moved on to Grand 
Prairie, south of Peace River, Edmonton 
with its railroad became the commercial 
center of a vast region and rapidly grew 
from a trading post to a flourishing city. 
At the present time the railroads follow- 
ing the tracks of the old carts will soon 
reach the Peace. 

It was with keen disappointment that 
the windows of the real estate dealers 
in Edmonton were viewed last summer. 
According to them Dunvegan, one of the 
earlier trading posts, had already become 
a city with many streets and buildings; 
Peace River Crossing was a flourishing 
town. All this brought visions of a 
region crowded with incoming settlers. 

Gradually however, as the journey was 
pursued, the feeling of disappointment 
gave way. To be sure, the journey 
from Edmonton to Athabasca Landing 
was made on the train, but the slow 
speed and long stops on the sidings gave 
ample opportunity for observing the 
country. The even- 
ing of that day and 
all the following day 
were spent on what 
seemed then a small 
flat-bottomed river 
steamer, heavily 
loaded with freight. 
We slowly and pain- 
fully made our way 
against a stiff cur- 
rent up the Atha- 
basca River between 
its well-wooded 

banks, and saw no 



signs of civilization. The second night 
brought us to the mouth of Lesser Slave 
River where a town had just had its 
birth. There were a few poolrooms, 
half a dozen houses and many tents. 
After a half-day of bad roads and un- 
comfortable riding, we found a really 
small river steamer waiting for us. 

The river was narrow and winding 
with banks about level with the upper 
deck. There was again no appearance 
of civilization. Muskrats were seen 
swimming in clear water and flowers 
grew on the banks almost within reach. 
There followed a day of rain on a wide 
lake where land was not to be seen — on 
such a day at least. That night when 
we reached the new town of Grouard 
came the first and almost the only blot 
on our enjoyment of the trip. A long 
sandy street was lined with new build- 
ings. No doubt there were good- 
hearted, normal human beings there, but 
those in evidence were aggressive and 
grasping. It was painful to learn that 
the most disliked examples were 
Americans who probably had moved on 
to Grouard because they were not 
wanted at home. 

Two and a half days spent on a wagon 
seat watching drizzling rain and clouds 
of mosquitoes, brought us through the 




Protection at night from mosquitoes in tlie Nortli. Muslin is used at 
the top to give strength, and cheese-cloth around the sides 




Camp of Dun vegan band of Beaver Indians. Here can be seen the last stages of the hunting life, 
which is now giving way to agriculture because of the inroads of white civilization 



ninety miles of small poplar timber along 
the trade road from Lesser Slave Lake 
to Peace River Crossing. Really the 
time should have been filled with thanks- 
giving, for it was the last speedy and not 
too uncomfortable trip to be made across 
this same portage for several months. 
Peace River Crossing did show signs of 
growth. But that "was n't too bad" as 
they say in the North. Undoubtedly 
the best part of it was that the " Gren- 
fell," the little river boat that was to take 
us downstream, had steam up and dinner 
cooked when we arrived. About two 
that afternoon we crossed the Peace 
and took on several- cords of wood. 



With a whistle to jeer at the Company's 
boat which had expected to pull out be- 
fore us and did not, we moved down- 
stream. 

The little "Grenfell" could make 
about fourteen miles, -and the river itself 
was making eight because the water was 
very high. It was liquid mud carrying 
driftwood and logs — even whole trees. 
The sun slowly moved from south to 
west, from west to northwest, and then 
was hidden behind the river banks. 
That it had set we could not be certain 
for there was plenty of light until about 
eleven o'clock when we tied up to the 
banks so the engineer could sleep. 




Fort Vermilion trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, said to bo the best stocked post in 
the North. Here a grist mill was maintained which also for many years furnished power for electric 
lights 

256 




Revillon Freres' trading post on Hay River, wlilch is more than seven hundred miles by any 
available route from the railroad. Fires are Icept burning to protect the horses from flies 



The river is full of islands. In the 
three hundred miles there are about two 
hundred of them, covered with pine and 
spruce timber. As we proceeded the 
banks gradually grew lower and the river 
wider. That night we tied up at North 
Vermilion and went down to the river 
bank instead of up, the river was so high. 
Here six hundred miles from the railroad 
there are two little communities of 
whites and half breeds, one on either side 
of the river. They get mail once a month 
and are glad to get it, although it is usu- 
ally two months old when it arrives. 



The white people are well-read, well- 
educated, and have the true northern 
hospitality. The half-breeds form a 
class by themselves. They read a little 
French, but prayer books and catechisms 
are all that are available to them in 
PVench. Only a few of them have been 
as far from home as Edmonton, the 
others consider Vermilion the center of 
the earth. 

With Vermilion as a base six weeks 
were spent in ethnological work. Dur- 
ing this time a trip was made to a trading 
post on Hay River on the occasion of 




Slavey Indians gathered to receive treaty money from the Dominion Government. An annual 
payment of Ave dollars for each Indian is made to heads of families in an effort to keep an accurate census 
and supervision over the tribes. Some refuse to accept the money and none have any conception of the 
outside world 

257 



258 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 




Slavey Indians showing type of face common to the 
northern tribes. These Indians are generally rather light 
in color and are thoroughly primitive in manners and cus- 
toms, although they have adopted white man's dress 




The Indians of the north honor a person of Importance by 
making a lob-stick. The one shown In the picture was made by 
Oree boatsmen 



"treaty paying". Nearly all 
the Indians of Canada receive 
cash payments from the Domin- 
ion Government once a year, 
A band of Slavey Indians, prac- 
tically untouched by civilization 
except as to dress, trade at this 
post which is seven hundred 
miles from the railroad by the 
usual route of travel. The 
Beaver Indians who hunt be- 
tween Hay River and the Peace 
p.re greatly reduced in numbers 
and considerably influenced by 
more than a century of contact 
with white and half-breed trad- 
ers and servants of the fur 
company. A fair collection 
was made among them, and 
information secured which, 
although scanty was very 
acceptable. 

Returning upstream from 
Vermilion to St. John in 
August was another matter 
as regards speed. The cur- 
rent was not quite so strong, 
but the steamer belonged to 
the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. The ways of the 
Company are still the old 
ways in the North. There 
must be a French-Cree 
word for manana since the 
thing itself certainly exists. 
The boat was comfortable 
however, the weather per- 
fect, and the companion- 
ship excellent. On that 
particular trip of the steam- 
er there was on board a fine 
old Catholic bishop who had 
been a pioneer in the North, 
two sisters of charity, a 
Church of England mission- 
ary, a judge, two or more 
lawyers, superintendents of 



ALONG PEACE RIVER 



259 



trading companies, politicians and sev- 
eral surveyors. It took three weeks to 
reach Fort St. John where from the river 
banks, nine hundred feet high, the Rocky 
Mountains are to be seen. The first of 
civilization in the persons of several 
young settlers went to St. John with us. 

Here also are remnants of 
once powerful Beaver tribes who 
in early days burat d the trading 
post and killed the traders. As 
treaty had been paid consider- 
ably in advance of the adver- 
tised date the Indians were 
nearly all far back from the 
river securing food for the 
winter. 

A week's stay was made at 
Dunvegan, some miles from 
which place a band of Beaver 
live on the reserve. Near them 
were several prosperous agricul- 
tural settlements. Dunvegan 
itself had not as yet responded 
to the efforts of the real estate 
agents at Edmonton. Its white 
population varies from three to 
five depending upon the move- 
ments of the mail-carriers. 

Coming back to Peace River 
Crossing was pleasant and 
should have been easy. If one 
sits down on a raft or in a canoe 
and sits still he will quietly pass 
the two hundred and forty miles 
from St. John to Peace River 
Crossing. Our luck was a canoe 
loaned to us. Because it was 
the homeward journey the nat- 
ural speed of the current, three 
miles, was increased to five or 
six by the use of the paddles. 
It is tiresome work, but a few 
days of it puts a large share of 
conceit into one when he tries his muscles 
against a loafer. Yes, there were bears, 
there always are on the Peace. This 



was the time of ripe berries and there 
were many bears. We know that they, 
Indian-like, must have "made medicine" 
against us, for nothing else could have 
prevented our killing one. 

We were very happy when Sunday 
night at eleven o'clock, two hours after 




Alexander Mackenzie, a descendant of the original 
Alexander Mackenzie, explorer and discoverer of the river 
which bears his name. Mr. Mackenzie is standing on the 
site of Fort MacLeod where the earlier Mackenzie spent his 
first winter on the Peace River before starting out for the 
Paciflc. 



darkness had come in the early days of 
September, we paddled our canoe along- 
side the Company's boat "Peace River." 



260 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 




This photograph shows how the banks of Canada follow closely upon 
the entrance of civilization 




Kind friends helped 
us unload. A cheery 
fire in the salon, a 
cup of tea, and wel- 
coming smiles soon 
drove out the cold 
and stiffness accu- 
mulated since five 
in the morning. This 
was at the end of the 
telegraph line and 
the beginning of civ- 
ilization which curi- 
ously enough was 
truly welcome. 

Will the North 
pass as our West 
has passed? Even 
when the Peace 
River is settled as it 
soon will be, there 
will remain a vast 
fur-bearing region, 
but that the peculiar 
types of white people 
and Indians with 
their present cus- 
toms and manners 
can long survive is 
a question, and they 
make the real North. 



Hudson's Bay Company's boat "Athabaska River" — which the opposi- 
tion boat its about to pass after three hoiu-s' racing 




Water on top of solid sea Ice in June 



"MY LIFE WITH THE ESKIMO' 



REVIEW OF A RECENT BOOKi BY VILHJALMUR STEFANSSON, LEADER OF 
THE CANADIAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION 

By Herbert L. Bridgman 



RARELY if ever has the dramatic 
element colored and dominated 
expeditions, as it has Stefans- 
son's. "Blonde Eskimo," though only 
an incident and a comparatively minor 
one, of four years of hard, faithful work, 
caught the popular fancy the world over, 
and now after weary months of waiting 
the certainty that the " Karluk " carry- 
ing the northern party of the expedition, 
is lost and a third of her party missing, 
is succeeded by deeper and darker mys- 
tery as to the fate of the expedition's 
leader with his two companions. Those 
who have known Stefansson longest and 
best do not give up hope, but the little 
party adrift in open Arctic pack must 
be in desperate chance either of gaining 

'My Life with the Eskimo. Vilhjalmur 
Stefansson. 8vo., 538 pages. Illustrated with 
60 halftone plates from photographs by the 
Author. New York: The Macmillan Company, 
1913. 



Banks Land or of subsisting for any con- 
considerable time. 

But no matter what may be the solu- 
tion of the mystery haunting and en- 
veloping the expedition of 1913, it but 
heightens and intensifies the interest 
with which one reads My Life with the 
Eskivio, a comely volume of compelling 
interest and that essential charm which 
personal, truth narratives, well told, 
always command. That Stefansson's 
project to "live off the country," prac- 
tically alone, was daring and original, as 
well as the core of practical common sense 
no one can now deny. Much of the 
success which he achieved was, however, 
due to him, rather than to his theory. 
A man less tenacious and resourceful, 
under circumstances exactly like those 
which confronted Stefansson might have 
made total wreck of his undertaking and 
perished into the bargain. Contrast the 

261 




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266 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



single white hunter cutting loose from 
his base, burning his bridges behind him, 
striking out with only rifle, sledge and 
two Eskimo, into the unknown East, 
ignorant whether he should find the 
missing tribes he sought or the game on 
which life depended, with the same man 
commanding fifty men and a squadron 
of three ships under the Canadian flag, 
and one gets a sense of the difference in 
exploration methods and the different 
ways by which men go about what looks 
like pretty much the same thing. 

More than these rare enough qualities 
though, Stefansson, as the reader of My 
Life with the Eskimo will quickly learn, 
has others not less notable. He not only 
can make history, he tells it with frank- 
ness, simplicity and naivete which make 
reading a pleasure and carry one, as 
with actors in a play or characters in ro- 
mance. He makes light of hardships, 
hard places and hard luck and whether 
without matches or food, appears to 
count it as all in the game and never 
grumbles nor bewails his luck. 

As a contribution of sub-Arctic eth- 
nology and archaeology, although written 
in familiar terms for the reading of every- 
body, the book adds a store to knowledge, 
while when it comes to dealing with 
purely scientific and technical V3,lues, 
no authority is as competent and im- 
partial as Stefansson. He takes nothing 
for granted, not many things, even him- 
self seriously, and weighs all theories 
and hypotheses in the light of actual 
facts and positive evidence. He does not 
attempt to decide where the blonde Es- 



kimo came from. He tells what he saw 
and learned and reserves his decision 
until he is certain that he has gathered 
all the evidence. 

In like manner the two chapters, sup- 
plemental to the narrative, upon the 
religion of the Eskimo and conversion 
of the heathen, are a most illuminating 
assemblage of actual facts, upon which 
Stefansson ventures no dogmatic opin- 
ion, although it is easy to detect between 
the lines what he really thinks. 

Dr. R. M. Anderson's hundred pages 
on the geology, plants, trees, fishes and 
mammals of the Northwestern Arctic are 
valuable and instructive, cut down to 
lowest and scientific terms, and his pres- 
ence with his former leader and comrade 
with the Canadian Arctic expedition 
gives promise of thorough study and 
large accessions of knowledge concern- 
ing a rapidly disappearing fauna. Maps 
and indexes are hardly as complete and 
copious as would be desired and the 
haste of Stef ansson's departure to which 
the publishers refer, is emphasized by the 
lack of a table of contents and an intro- 
duction, for which the first chapter will 
serve as a tolerable substitute. 

My Life with the Eskimo must make 
multitudes of readers and friends every- 
where, who will await with eagerness the 
news, as it shall come at infrequent and 
irregular intervals, of the absent expedi- 
tion, imtil it brings to us the chapters 
yet to be written concerning the distri- 
bution and the past, present and future 
of these quaint interesting Eskimo tribes 
of our common human family. 



SHELL COLLECTION IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



By L. P. Gratacap 



PERHAPS no department of zoology 
exceeds conchology in appeal to the 
imagination and to the intellect. 
Shells are among the earliest evi- 
dences of life upon oiu* globe and their pre- 
servation in the older rocks surpasses in its 
intelligibility that of any other order of or- 
ganisms, while in the world around us they 
inhabit the land and the sea with a univer- 
sality of diffusion that is preeminent. 

Their formal contrasts are also remarkable. 
Grouped to-day under MoUusca, the zoolo- 
gist contemplates an assemblage of animals 
which in their divergent aspects at either end 
of the series brings him in contact with the 
extraordinary calamaries, squids and cuttle- 
fish and with the graceful, delicately colored 
and fragile nudibranchs. No systematic 
division of the kingdom of living things per- 
haps offers so apparently heterogeneous an 
association. Let the reader recall to mind 
those marine monsters of fabled ferocity such 
as the giant squids, creatures that may have 
attained a length of fifty feet, a great part of 
which belonged to their grotesque and power- 
ful arms, then watch — if he is afforded the 
pleasure — the nereid-like beauty and pro- 
tean coloration of Dendronatus as he may see 
it on rocky bottoms or in tide pools on 
the coast of Maine, and then bring together 
under one collocation these almost irre- 
concilable elements and he will reaUze the 
wonderful contents of this study; all the 
more too as in neither the squid nor in the 
sea-slugs is there any showing of a shell. It 
is indeed not possible to reserve astonishment 
when we find the bivalve (oyster, clam, 
mussel), united in the same class with the 
big whelks (Strombus), the colossal tritons 
and the variegated cowries {Cyproea) and also 
with those singular sluggish patches of many- 
plated elliptical bodies immovably adherent 
to rocks, which the fishermen call "coats-of- 
mail," and collectors call "chitons," and 
which the nomenclatural facility of syste- 
matists arranges under the descriptive desig- 
nation of the Polyplacophora. 

Turning to the land the student encounters 
an innumerable army of molluscan inhabi- 
tants which, excepting that they do not fly, 
fill it at all points, not omitting its lakes and 



rivers and which take on in southern climes 
the most vivid colorations. 

The interest of shells however is not at all 
limited to these contrasts of form or function 
or to their diversity of ornamentation. By 
reason of their distribution in time they allow 
the palaeontologist to guide or correct the geol- 
ogist, while almost more discernibly than any 
other kind of life, they mark the evolutionary 
stages of creation, and enable the student of 
past conditions to determine the geographical 
and climatic fluctuations of the continents. 
They notably contribute to the current dis- 
cussions which engage naturalists as to centers 
of radiation, convergence, or parallelism of 
growth, survival, selection, migration, varia- 
tion, rudimentary organs, environment, ac- 
celeration and heterostylism, and while they 
may lack what might be called a muscularity 
of demonstration, their evidence perhaps is 
more conclusive if more subtle, than that 
derived from the mammals or the birds or 
the reptiles. 

The shell collection now opened to the 
public, after three years of seclusion, by no 
means iUustrates all the claims made above. 
It is primarily a collection of living shells and 
the shadowy extension of the class backward 
to the first dawn of life is scarcely hinted at. 
Nor at present has it been made illustrative 
of the ecological problems which exercise so 
much fascination for investigators, problems 
of where and how and why. In the condi- 
tion in which the visitor will find it, it is 
a fairly representative collection of marine, 
fresh-water and land shells, and only in the 
synoptical series on the south wall, is any 
intimation gleaned of the existence of mol- 
luscs which have no shell, such as the squids 
and nudibranchs. But the collection is not 
on that account deprived of interest or charm, 
indeed a too preponderant invasion of fossil 
shells would prove deterrent to the average 
visitor and the shell-less molluscs could only 
secure representation, as they do, in alco- 
holic specimens or by models. 

The apportionment of parts in the hall is 
quickly explained. The flat table cases at 
the north and south ends contain land shells, 
with a representation of brackish water shells 
{Cassidulus, Pythia, Melampus) and a few 

267 



268 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



pond snails (lAmnea, Physa, Planorbis etc.); 
the marine univalves are arranged in the 
large metallic cases in the east and west 
corridors, and the bivalves (Pelecypoda) 
occupy the rail cases, while a much con- 
tracted, and simply emblematic, synoptical 
series has been placed in the south wall cases, 
and especial exhibits, as of abnormalities, 
ornamental uses, large shells, color or other 
variation, and the map of moUuscan oceanic 
provinces with representative genera, are 
installed on the north wall. 

Even thus limited the prodigality of the 
display must prove educational, while in 
many genera the long suites and the perfec- 
tion of the shells convey an aesthetic pleasure 
which many visitors may find helpful for 
retaining scientific names and position. A 
hall of shells broadly generalized and con- 
trolled by the wisest scientific spirit would 
make it tributary — let us say — to ocean- 
ography, where the populations of the suc- 
cessive benches of the sea margin and the 
inhabitants of the abyss would be exhibited, 
while it also defined, in its arrangement, land 
faunal areas. It is however certain that in 
such a disposition of the shell collection, 
systematic study would be much deranged, 
and so far as permanent impressions of the 
families and genera of shells are valuable, 
visitors might lose much. A double exhibi- 
tion might be so conceived that both the 
distribution and the kinds of shells in their 
serial and group arrangements could be 
harmonized with reciprocal benefits in both 
divisions from the collocation. 

The collection as made up, is a composite 
one, and encloses, by inference and sugges- 
tion as well as- by chronological data, an 
interesting history of early conchological 
effort. Its nucleus — although like most 
nuclei overwhelmingly occluded in subse- 
quent growths — was the famous collection 
of Dr. John C. Jay, and its presentation by 
Miss Catherine Wolf to the American Mu- 
seum laid the foundations of the great scien- 
tific library now found within its walls. It 
was practically a purchase of the large Jay 
library, which brought the Jay collection of 
shells along with it, that began the present 
library of the Museum. 

The Jay collection of shells is inseparable 
of course from the stirring memories of the 
excitement, interest and applause that at- 
tended the publication of the Jay catalogue 
of shells, near the middle of the last 
century. It was a remarkable work in its 



day. It remains a mommient to the author's 
industry. Bibliographic research had hardly 
in this country covered so large a field before. 
The work went through four editions and 
enumerated nearly eleven thousand species, 
the compilation of its synonymy embracing 
some 40,000 names. Collecting in those 
days, as is very well known, did not resume, 
as to-day, the details of occurrence, and 
locality data are often vague or illimitable, 
but the collection was a very notable one and 
probably in its comprehension of families 
exceeded in importance any public or private 
collection at the time. 

To this collection has been added, by 
purchase, the very remarkably beautiful 
collection of Wilham S. Haines which added 
not only a long Hst of species, but increased 
the individual suites by many notably per- 
fect specimens. The Bickmore collections 
from the East Indies and Spice Islands, the 
John Crooke collection — a very valuable 
gift from that gentleman — ■ and the Binney 
and Bland collection of land shells, with many 
types and cotypes, together with numerous 
gifts of smaller lots, none negligible and many 
important, make up the Museum's present 
collection, 

A late and very important addition of 
specimens was received from the late 
Frederick A. Constable, presented before 
his death. It particularly embraces a really 
notable assemblage of small shells labelled 
and many most painstakingly mounted in 
glass-covered black-edged boxes. The scien- 
tific importance of this generous gift cannot 
be overestimated. 

The immediate work to be undertaken in 
connection with this collection seems rather 
startling in its demands. The collection 
must be relabelled in large measure with 
deference to new or later nomenclatural needs 
and in some way a systematic study collec- 
tion must be segregated for daily use. Its 
gaps should be filled, and especially the 
moUuscan fauna of America — no matter 
how inclusive or exclusive the term is made — 
be fully illustrated, while the excursus of 
more ambitious designs might reasonably 
extend all of this work into a developmental 
comparative study of Tertiary and living 
forms. But obviously, apart from these 
higher scientific ends, the immediate requisi- 
tion is an attractive installment, and fresh- 
ened accessories, whereby the young student, 
the collector and the more or less observant 
visitor may be aided, stimulated or instructed. 



MUSEUM NOTES 



Word has been received from Messrs. 
Herbert Lang and James Chapin of the 
Congo expedition that they arrived safely at 
Stanleyville on September 30. The collec- 
tions are in fine condition and in such quan- 
tity that the final packing will demand three 
months. It will be remembered that the 
expedition set sail more than five years ago 
under the patronage of the Belgian govern- 
ment and was financed by Messrs. John B. 
Trevor, Charles Lanier, Cleveland H. Dodge, 
J. P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, A. D. 
Juilliard, Robert W. Goelet and William 
Rockefeller as well as by an appropriation 
from the Belgian Government. The aims 
and scope of the expedition and the work 
accomplished rank it among the greatest 
that the Museum has ever sent out. 

Mr, Leo E. Miller was chosen to lead 
another expedition to South America and 
set out during the latter part of October. 
Mr. Miller has already done valuable 
scientific work as a member of the Mu- 
seum's first Colombian expedition in 1911, 
leader of the second Colombian expedition 
in 1911 and 1912, leader of the Upper 
Orinoco expedition in 1913, leader of the 
British Guiana expedition in 1913 and 
mammalogist of Colonel Roosevelt's South 
American expedition in 1913 and 1914, and is 
thus particularly well equipped for work on 
that continent. Mr. Miller will have as his 
assistant, Mr. Howarth Boyle. The expedi- 
tion is financed in part by Colonel Roosevelt 
and in fact has come about as an outgrowth 
of friendly relations which grew up between 
Mr. Miller and Colonel Roosevelt on the 
recent South American expedition. The 
new expedition will proceed directly to 
Colombia and will go first to the semi-arid 
region around Barranquilla, then up the 
Magdalena to Puerto Berrio and across to 
Medellin, the capital of Antioquia. With 
Medellln as a base about four months will 
probably be spent in this region, working out 
the different life zones from the low tropical 
forest at Cdceres on the Cauca to the cold 
paramo of St. Elena. The expedition will 
then take up work on the west coast of Pan- 
ama for a few months, will go from there to 
Chili, and thence overland into the highlands 
of Bolivia, making Sucre the base of opera- 
tions. Some months will be spent in this 



neighborhood, with possibly a trip to Lake 
Titicaca. The return will very likely be 
made by way of the Rio Beni, the Madeira 
and the Amazon rivers some two years hence. 

Mr. Albert Thomson continued work in 
the agate fossil quarry in Nebraska this 
summer for the department of vertebrate 
palaeontology. Four skeletons of the great 
"clawed ungulate" Moropus were obtained, 
which, added to those secured during the 
last two seasons, will supply a series of speci- 
mens such as is seldom available for the study 
of any extinct mammal. The best of these 
skeletons will be selected for a mounted group 
to be placed in the Tertiary mammal hall. 

The principal expedition of this depart- 
ment was in charge of Mr. Barnum Brown, 
to the Cretaceous dinosaur bed of Alberta. 
The results of this highly successful season's 
work will be reported in a later number of the 
Journal. 

A PLAN for the extension of the educational 
work of the Museum, providing for the 
establishment of local lecture centers in 
centrally located schools, the inauguration 
of a system for loaning sUdes and the opening 
of a branch teaching and exhibition museum 
in the Washington Irving High School, has 
been presented to the Board of Trustees and 
has received their general approval. Presi- 
dent Osborn has appointed a committee 
consisting of Mr. Felix M. Warburg and 
Mr. R. Fulton Cutting of the trustees and 
Mr. George H. Sherwood and Dr. C.-E. A. 
Winslow of the Museum faculty to consider 
further the detailed plans for the proposed 
extension. This project has also received 
the endorsement of Mr. Thomas W. Churchill, 
president of the Board of Education of New 
York City, who has appointed a special 
committee of the board consisting of Mr. 
Frank D. Wilsey, chairman. Dr. Ira S. Wile 
and Mr. Francis P. Cunnion to consider these 
plans for cooperation between the Board of 
Education and the Museum. The plans 
have been approved also by Dr. William H. 
Maxwell, city superintendent of schools. 

Dr. Robert H. Lowie spent the summer 
in ethnological work in Montana and Nevada. 
He visited the Crow Indians of southeastern 
Montana from whom he secured a large body 

269 



270 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 




of mythological tales. From the Northern 
Paiute whom he visited for the first time as a 
part of the department of anthropology's 
reconnaissance of the plateau area, he ob- 
tained a representative collection of basketry 
and other objects representative of native 
culture. One of the most interesting speci- 
mens is a boat or halsa, more than ten feet 
in length and made entirely of rushes, for use 
during the fall duck hunt. A brief visit was 
paid to the Ute Indians of Utah for the pur- 
pose of comparison with the southern Ute 
of southwestern Colorado, who had been 
visited some years ago. 

Since the last issue of the Journal the 
following persons have become members of 
the Museum: 

Patron, Mr. Robert Fulton Cutting; 

Liife Members, Mrs. Sidney M. Colgate, 
Dr. W. S. Rainsford, and Messrs. James 
Barnes, Samuel J. Bloomingdale, S. 
Bayard Colgate, Edward D. Harris, 
Frederick C. Rowley and Henry Rowley; 

Annual Members, Mrs. John A. Morris, 
Miss R. C. Boardman, Dr. Lee M. Hurd, 
and Messrs. David A. Aronson, H. E. 
Fenske, Fred W. Green, Robert W. 
Martin, Clyde Milne, James Ulmann, 
and Otto von Schrenk. 

Owing to a depletion of funds available for 
publication of the Journal, the Museum has 
considered it advisable to combine the 
October and November numbers in the 
present issue, to be followed by the Decem- 
ber number as usual. 

A letter recently addressed by President 
Henry Fairfield Osbom of the American 
Museum to the President of the Chinese 
Republic urging that the Chinese Republic 
preserve its antiquities and products of art, 
was reprinted by order of the President of 
the Chinese Republic in a large number 
of the newspapers of China. This letter and 
the memorial received from the Asiatic 
Institute was followed by an edict protecting 
all monuments of China and finally by an 
edict from the Chinese President setting aside 
a large reservation and buildings in the city 
of Pekin for the establishment of a national 
historical and art museum. 

A preliminary report is now in press, of 
the work of the Stefdnsson-Anderson ex- 
pedition, which spent 1909-12 in ethnological 



and zoological research for the Museum along 
the shores of Beaufort Sea and Coronation 
Gulf in the Arctic. The report was in part 
prepared by Mr. Stefdnsson before his de- 
parture on the Canadian Arctic expedition 
in the summer of 1913 and consists further 
of extracts taken directly from his field 
journals. It is made up of 376 pages, with 
two maps and 94 figures in the text, and 
will appear in the Anthropological Papers pub- 
lished by the Museum. 

Dr. Bruno Q^tteking, who has been 
assisting in compiling the results of the Jesup 
North Pacific expedition as regards physical 
anthropology, has returned from Germany 
where he has been spending the summer. 

The Museum has-recently been honored 
by a visit from Messrs. R. R. Marett and 
Sydney Hartland, two eminent English 
anthropologists who were returning from the 
meetings of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science held in Australia 
during the summer. 

Dr. Pliny E. Goddard spent August and 
September in ethnological work among the 
Apache Indians along the Gila and San Carlos 
rivers in Arizona, and succeeded in securing 
valuable motion picture films illustrating the 
industries of the people. 

During the past summer Dr. Clark 
Wissler, with the aid of Mr. James R. Murie, 
an educated and influential member of the 
Pawnee tribe of Indians, completed various 
manuscripts descriptive of the societies of the 
Pawnee. 

The Danish Arctic explorer, Mr. Knud 
Rasmussen, who showed marked courtesy 
to the members of the Crocker Land expedi- 
tion during the past year, has recently had 
$75,000 placed at his disposal for the purpose 
of outfitting a North Pole expedition. The 
expedition, which will take provisions for 
two years, will be provided with all modern 
appliances and will be accompanied by a 
staff of scientists. The base will be at Cape 
York, in Greenland. 

A letter has been received by the Museum 
from Mr. D. B. Boggild, director of the 
Mineralogical Museum of the University of 
Copenhagen, expressing appreciation for the 
assistance rendered by the members of the 
Crocker Land party to Mr. Knud Rasmussen. 



MUSEUM NOTES 



271 



The Transantarctic expedition headed by 
Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was a frequent 
visitor at the Museum during the outfitting 
of Mr. Stefansson's Arctic expedition, left 
London in September. One section under 
Sir Ernest Shackleton departed for South 
America and the other haK of the expedition 
left for Ross Sea on the New Zealand side 
of the Antarctic, by way of Tasmania. The 
Ross Sea party will board the exploration 
ship "Aurora" at Hobart, Tasmania. Sir 
Ernest Shackleton wiU leave Buenos Aires by 
the ship "Endurance." It is expected that 
the two sections of the expedition will meet 
by April of next year or faiUng that, by 
March, 1916. 

Mr. H. R. Francis, assistant professor of 
landscape engineering in the New York 
State College of Forestry at Syracuse Uni- 
versity, made a street tree survey of a section 
of the Borough of Manhattan during the 
summer, with an office in the Museum as his 
headquarters. The work was undertaken 
by the College of Forestry in cooperation 
with the Tree Planting Association of New 
York City. During the winter of 1913-14 
a general survey was made of all the Borough 
of Manhattan and a report was issued by 
Professor Francis to the Tree Planting 
Association. The work this summer was to 
ascertain the conditions in detail of a section 
of Manhattan that would be typical of the 
Borough. The survey was made in the 
portion of Manhattan east of Fifth Avenue 
between 86th Street and 42nd, east of Sixth 
Avenue between 40th Street and 14th Street 
and east of Avenue B between 14th Street 
and Rivington Street. A large amount of 
valuable data was obtained which will be 
used as a basis for an additional report to 
the Tree Planting Association. 

Professor Francis found that there is great 
need for more intelligent care in the planting 
and preservation of trees along the streets 
of Greater New York City. The Park De- 
partment under whose supervision the work 
of this kind has been done since 1902, has 
never had funds sufficient to care for trees 
already planted or those planted from time 
to time by private property owners, nor to 
plant new trees along streets where trees 
have died. In the section of the city sur- 
veyed by Professor Francis it was found that 
the trees were dying through lack of care, 
and opportimities for planting trees had been 



neglected for many years. This is particu- 
larly true of the section east of Third Avenue 
where thousands of children have no place to 
play other than on the streets. What New 
York City really needs is a Bureau of Tree 
Culture with a city forester for each bor- 
ough and the proper support from the city 
to do the work of planting and preservation 
of shade trees in an effective way. 

Dr. Frederick W. True, assistant director 
of the Smithsonian Institution and one of 
the foremost cetologists of the present time, 
died in Washington on June 25. 

The American Ornithologists' Union has 
appointed Dr. J. A. Allen and Dr. Frank M. 
Chapman of the department of mammalogy 
and ornithology, with ten other scientists as 
a committee on classification and nomen- 
clature of North American birds. 

During the summer a visit was paid to the 
Museum by Dr. Alexander G. Ruthven and 
Mr. Frederick M. Gaige, of the Museum of 
Zoology of the University of Michigan, 
en route to British Guiana, where they will 
carry on zoological field studies. 

Dr. C.-E. a. Winslow has resigned from 
the College of the City of New York to be- 
come director of education in the reorgan- 
ized State Department of Health. His work 
at the Museum will continue as heretofore. 

Dr. Herbert J. Spinden of the depart- 
ment of anthropology returned during the 
summer from a seven months' archaeological 
expedition to the Maya ruins of Central 
America. Dr. Spinden was accompanied by 
Mr. S. G. Morley, at the time a fellow of the 
Archaeological Institute of America and now 
connected with the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington. Together they visited the 
principal ruins of southern Yucatan including 
Naranjo, Tikal, Ixkun, Seibal, Yaxchilan 
and Piedras Negras and obtained valuable 
information concerning monuments already 
known and found others not previously re- 
ported. Field work was also carried on 
among the Carib Indians of British Hon- 
duras. A reconnaissance of the interesting 
archaeology of Salvador was also accompUshed. 
A number of collections were secured in 
different locahties, the largest and most 
important being from Salvador. 



272 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Mr. Alanson Skinner of the department 
of anthropology spent the early part of the 
summer with the Kansa Indians in northern 
Oklahoma where data on their social life and 
societies was obtained, and the last sacred 
war bundle in the possession of the tribe 
secured. From that point Mr. Skinner went 
to central Oklahoma where work was taken 
up among the Iowa. Special attention was 
paid to the military and secret societies of 
the tribe and a complete ritual of the medi- 
cine dance was secured, as well as several 
specimens of different sacred bundles. A 
few days were spent among the Ponca where 
further data was collected upon the societies 
of that tribe. The latter part of the summer 
Mr. Skinner stayed at Sisseton, South Dakota, 
where with the assistance of Mr. Amos One 
Road, a young Sioux, investigations were 
made among the Eastern Dakota with special 
regard to material culture. These people, 
unhke the Oklahoma tribes, have given up 
almost everything that pertained to the old 
Indian life and are now actively engaged in 
farming. Some very old and unusual speci- 
mens were obtained however from people 
who had kept them as relics of the past. 

During July, August and the greater 
portion of September Dr. Chester A. Reeds 
of the department of geology and inverte- 
brate palaeontology together with Messrs. 
Hyde, Logan and Snider of the Oklahoma 
Geological Survey, as field assistants, made 
a collection of approximately 50,000 inverte- 
brate fossils from the Hunton beds, Arbuckle 
Mountains, Oklahoma. Nine distinct geo- 
logical horizons were estabhshed, five being 
Silurian, and four Lower Devonian. The col- 
lection sent to the Museum consists of small 
specimens, except for two well-preserved sec- 
tions of a fossil tree {Dadaxylon newberryensis) . 
The specimens of fossil wood have been placed 
on exhibition in the hall of geology. 

The Schrammen collection of Cretaceous 
fossils has been purchased by the department 
of geology and invertebrate palaeontology 
of the Museum from Dr. A. Schrammen of 
Hildesheim, Germany. It consists of eleven 
hundred species of invertebrates represented 
l)y four thousand specimens which were 
collected from some fifty localities and four- 
teen geological horizons in the upper and 
lower Cretaceous beds of northwest Germany. 
The phyla and sub-phyla represented are the 
Foraminifera, epongia, hydrozoa, anthozoa, 



echinoidea, annelida, brachiopoda, gastro- 
poda, pelecypoda and cephalopoda. Among 
the pelecypoda and cephalopoda are to be 
found the type specimens of WoUeman 
in his work on the Cretaceous of Misburg 
and Nettlingen. The most valuable portion 
of the collection is the large number of types 
of siliceous sponges from the Mucronaten 
and Quadraten Senonian strata. Those 
from Oberg are really beautiful, and although 
delicate, are remarkably well preserved. 
The descriptions of the type sponges appear 
in Dr. A. Schrammen's monograph on the 
Kreidespongien, Palceontographica, Vol. V, 
Supplement. 

Miss Ann E. Thomas has been appointed 
assistant in the department of public educa- 
tion to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- 
tion of Mrs. Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan. 

Mr. Adolph Elwyn, who for the past 
nine years has been assistant in the depart- 
ment of anatomy and physiology, has re- 
signed his position to become instructor in 
histology and biology at the Long Island 
College Hospital. Mr. Clarence R. Halter 
has been appointed to succeed Mr. Elwyn. 

Mr. F. E. Watson has been appointed an 
assistant in the department of invertebrate 
zoology. He will devote the greater portion 
of his time to Lepidoptera. 

Dr. Simoens da Silva of Rio de Janeiro 
visited the Museum during October, having 
come to the United States as the official 
BraziUan delegate to the Congress of Ameri- 
canists. Dr. Da Silva is interested in 
archaeology and has a private museum de- 
voted to that branch of science. 

In the will of the late Miss Dessie Greer, 
an annual member of the Museum, the Mu- 
seum is designated as a beneficiary of a fund 
of $90,000, which is being held in trust during 
the lifetime of Miss Theresa Trimper, 

Under the will of the late Morris Loeb the 
Museum is designated as one of the bene- 
ficiaries of the residuary estate, appraised 
at $989,857, subject to a life interest of Mrs. 
Loeb. The appraiser estimates that the 
Museum's share of this fund will be $36,946. 
The Museum is also a contingent beneficiary 
of a special fund of $25,000 to be used for the 
estabhshment or maintenance of a chemical 
type museum. 



OLUME XIV 



DECEMBER, 1914 



NUMBER 6 




REE TO MEMBERS 



TWENTY CENTS PER COPY 



American Museum of Natural History 

Seventy- seventh Street anl Central Park West, New York City 

BOARD OF TRUSTKKS 

President 
Henry Fairfield Osborn 
First Vice-President Second Vice-President 

Cleveland H. Dodge J. p. Morgan 

Treasurer Secretary 

Charles Lanier Adrian Iselin, Jr. 

John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of the City of New York 
William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York 
Cabot Ward, President of the Department of Parks 
George F. Baker Madison Grant Ogden Mills 

Frederick F. Brewster Anson W. Hard Percy R. Pyne 

Joseph H. Choate Archer M. Huntington John B. Trevor 

R. Fulton Cutting Arthur Curtiss James Felix M. Warburg 

Thomas DeWitt Cuyler Walter B. James George W. Wickersham 

James Douglas A. D. Juilliard 

Henry C. Frick Seth Low 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
Director Assistant Secretary 

Frederic A. Lucas George H. Sherwood 

Assistant Treasurer 
The United States Trust Company of New York 



The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. 

The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the 
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it ia in 
cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum 
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- 
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and 
ol her parts of the world. The membership fees are, 

Annual Members $10 Fellows $ 500 

Sustaining Members (annually) ... 25 Patrons 1000 

X.ife Members 100 Associate Benefactors 10.000 

Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working 
tjollection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and 
abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays 
excepted — from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. 

The Musetun Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- 
cal Papers, American Musemn Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information 
concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. 

Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of pubhc 
education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department 
for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also 
be arranged for. In all cases th^ best results are obtained with small groups of children. 

Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- 
ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens 
for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. 



^73 



The American Museum Journal 

Volume XIV DECEMBER, 1914 Number 8 



CONTENTS 

Cover, Pueblo Indian Girl 

Copyright photograph by Karl Moon 

American Museum Whale Collection Roy C. Andrews 275 

with many illustrations and photographs by the Author. A review of the work of expedi- 
tions sent out by the American Museum to Vancouver Island and the southern Alaskan 
coast, to the St. Lawrence and to the islands of the Pacific and shore waters of Japan, during 
which there has been secured what is probably the most complete collection of large cetaceans 
in the world 

Kitchen Middens of Jamaica G. C. Longley 295 

With folding plate illustrating domestic and industrial objects of the extinct Arawak, col- 
lected by Mr. Longley and presented by him to the American Museum 

An Episode of a Museum Expedition Carl E. Akeley 305 

The story of Mr. Akeley's encoimter with a leopard when hunting in the desert of Somaliland 

News from the Crocker Land Expedition Edmund Otis Hovey 309 

Museum Notes 310 



Maby Cynthia Dickerson, Editor 

P ublished monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: 
one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 
1907, at the Post-OflBce at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. 

Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Museum Journal, 77th St. and 
Central Park West, New York City. 

The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. 




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The American Museum Journal 



Volume XIV 



DECEMBER, 1914 



Number 8 



AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



By Roy C. Andrews 



With photographs by the Author 



THE active field work for the col- 
lection of whales began during 
the winter of 1907, when two 
North Atlantic right whales were killed 
at Amagansett and Wainscott, Long 
Island, and their skeletons secured for 
the Museum. The larger one, which 
proved to be of record size, was beached 
just at the edge of low tide where surf 
was continually breaking over it, and to 
secure all the bones of the skeleton was a 
difficult task. The weather was bitterly 
cold and after the second day's work a 
gale buried half of the body in sand. 
To dig it out it was necessary to build a 
breakwater of whale meat and even then 
the surf washed in from below, filling 
the pit so that we were working almost 
up to our hips in blood and freezing water 
while cutting blindly away at the bones 
buried deep in flesh. It took two weeks 
of the hardest kind of work to get the 
skeletons partially cleaned and loaded 
into a freight car for shipment to the 
Museum. 

With these two specimens and a third 
right whale which had long been owned 
by the Museum, the Cetacean collection 
had a nucleus, and shortly afterward the 
skeleton of a splendid Atlantic finback 
was purchased through the generosity 
of Mr. George S. Bowdoin. Mr. Bow- 



doin had already given the life-size model 
of a blue, or sulphur-bottom, whale 
which had been constructed in 1907 
from measurements and photographs of 
a specimen taken at Newfoundland. 

The building of this accurate replica of 
the largest animal which has ever been 
known to live upon the earth or in its 
waters, was something of a task. A light 
iron framework was first constructed; 
over this was stretched iron netting, and 
the exterior modeled in papier-mache. 
The peculiar folds of the throat and 
breast were represented by means of long 
strips of wood cut to the proper shape 
and bent by steam. It required nearly 
eight months to build the model and 
before it was completed a whole world of 
experience had been gained as to " what 
not to do." 

About the time the model was fin- 
ished it was learned that three shore- 
whaling stations were in operation on the 
west coast of America, two being located 
on Vancouver Island and one in south- 
eastern Alaska. Practically the only 
knowledge of the Pacific whales rested 
upon the work of Captain C. M. Scam- 
mon, whose book, "Marine Mammalia" 
had been published more than forty 
years before. 

Just what relation the large Cetaceans 

275 




Young right whale taken at Amagansett, Long Island. This whale was probably only a few weeks 
old when killed. The skeleton was lost during a heavy storm which was beginning to break when the 
photograph was taken 




A record right whale taken in 1907 at Amagansett. Long Island. The whale was beached just at 
the edge of low tide and was soon covered with a heavy coating of ice. It was the largest individual 
of the species which has yet been recorded. Not only the skeleton but the entire baleen was pur- 
chased for the Museum 

270 




stripping off the blubber from a blue whale at Vancouver Island. Longitudinal incisions are 
made along the side of the whale and the blubber torn off in great strips by the aid of the steam 
winch. It requires only fifteen or twenty minutes to flens3 one side of a large whale 




Drawing up a blue whale at Vancouver Island. The blue whale, as far as is now known, is the 
largest animal which has ever lived upon the earth or in the water 

277 




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280 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of this ocean bore to those of the Atlantic 
was unknown although some cetologists 
believed that all the large whales were 
cosmopolitan, and with this almost un- 
touched field before us and the unusual 
facilities which a shore station offers 
for the study of such huge animals, the 
time seemed opportune to take up the 
work in the North Pacific. 

Early in May, 1908, I left for Van- 



more than five or six large whales, one can 
realize what a wonderful opportunity 
was presented for the study of a group of 
animals which, from the standpoint of 
evolution alone, are among the most 
interesting in the world. 

The shore stations are located at con- 
venient points near the feeding grounds 
of the animals, where the ships can come 
in each night bringing the day's catch. 




Humpback whale showing tongue. The whale's tongue had been forced out of Its mouth by air 
which was pumped Into the body In order to keep the animal afloat. The tongue is a soft flabby mass 
of tissue which is held in place by the jaw bones 



couver Island and began work there. 
During the time spent at the stations 
almost a hundred whales representing 
four different species were under obser- 
vation and each specimen was carefully 
described, measured and photographed. 
When one stops to think that before 
shore-whaling began, a naturalist might 
spend an (uitire lifetime without seeing 



The whales are anchored at the end of a 
long inclined platform called the "slip" 
and the huge carcasses, sometimes weigh- 
ing seventy tons each, are drawn en- 
tirely out of the water. By means of his 
notebook, tape measure and camera the 
naturalist, if he works quickly, can bring 
away with him a fairly complete record 
of the animal's external anatomy before 



282 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the body is denuded of its blubber coat- 
ing. 

The blubber which covers the bodies of 
all Cetaceans is a layer of fat which acts 
as a non-conductor to prevent the bodily 



heat from being absorbed by the water, 
and thus keeps the animal warm. It 
can be stripped off just as one would peel 
an orange and by means of the steam 
winch one side of an eighty-foot whale 




By courtesy of National Geographic 
Magazine. Copyrighted, 1911 
Two humpback whales diving. They had beea feeding near the surface, coming up to blow every 
few seconds. The great diversity in the shape of the dorsal fin in this species is well shown by these two 
individuals 




White whale diving. Passengers on the steamers traversing the St. Lawrence River often mistake 
the bodies of the white porpoises for whitecaps. This photograph shows the white whale in the act of 
diving with the maximum amoimt of body exposed above the surface of the water 



AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



283 



can be "flensed" in twenty minutes. 
The body is then turned over by means 
of the "canting winch," the other side 
denuded of its blubber covering, and the 
viscera removed. The whale is hauled 
to the "carcass platform," the flesh 
stripped off, the skeleton disarticulated 
and the bones chopped in pieces. 

While this work is going on, an oppor- 
tunity is given the naturalist to secure 
valuable observations upon the skeleton 
as the bones lie in position — if he be not 
afraid of blood and grease. The exami- 



nation of fresh specimens is the only way 
in which many disputed points in the 
osteology of the large whales can ever be 
settled, for after the skeletons have been 
disarticulated the smaller bones are 
almost invariably lost in the tons of 
flesh with which the skeleton is covered. 
Before 1864 when the invention of the 
harpoon gun by Svend Foyn made the 
shore station possible, dead whales 
which had been cast upon the coast were 
almost the only ones which ever came 
under the observation of a trained ob- 




Towing a white whale to the beach. This animal had just been killed from a canoe and is being 
towed to the beach where its skeleton was removed for the Museum 




Pacific blackflsh (Globiocephalus scammoni). This is a very rare species and practically nothing 
has been known hitherto of its external characteristics 



server. These specimens were nearly 
always in a more or less advanced state 
of decomposition and badly bloated by 
gases so that little of their true form 
remained. All Cetaceans change color 
very rapidly after death and unless the 
animal is seen before it has been exposed 
to the air, accurate descriptions of its 
color in life cannot be obtained. For 
instance, the Atlantic finback for many 
years has been described as "black" 
although it is never black in life. 

When the work of the Vancouver 
Island stations was finished I went 
northward to study finbacks at Tyee, 
on Admiralty Island, Alaska, for at the 
southern stations only humpback, blue 
and sperm whales had been taken. 

I came back to New York in the fall 
with much information about the Pacific 
whales and an intense desire to continue 
the work. An opportunity soon pre- 
sented itself and the following June 

284 



I went to Quebec to study and collect the 
beautiful "white whale," the marsouin 
blanc of the French dwellers along the St. 
Lawrence River. Although this species 
is a true ice porpoise and is never found 
where the water is far above the freezing 
point, yet early in the spring the animals 
come into the St. Lawrence River by 
thousands, their white bodies looking 
more like foamy wave crests than things 
of life. They are hunted for their skins 
which give the "porpoise hide" of 
commerce, each animal being worth 
about seven dollars. 

The whales were killed by first shoot- 
ing them with a heavy musket as they 
rose to blow, then paddling up in a small 
canoe and throwing a harpoon as they 
thrashed their white lengths about 
upon the water. The first whale we 
killed was a full-grown male absolutely 
pure white, except for a narrow grayish 
edging on the flukes and fins. It was 



AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



285 



beached in a sandy cove where the gray 
rock wall rose in a jagged mass, making a 
perfect background for the white body, 
its purity of color intensified by the crim- 
son streaks of blood which dripped from 
the bullet holes. There was something 
almost unearthly about the picture, the 
beautiful ghostlike animal, a very Spirit 
of the North, seeming strangely out of 
place away from its icebound home. 
Five complete skeletons were secured of 
the marsouin blanc on this expedition 
as well as plaster molds of its body. 

Early in August of the same summer 
a temporary appointment on the United 
States Steamship "Albatross" bound for 
a cruise of zoological exploration in the 
Dutch East Indies was offered, and I 
joined the ship at Manila, Philippine 
Islands. In the first part of the expedi- 
tion the only Cetacean material which 
was secured consisted of several skulls 
of the Southern Pacific blackfish. These 
have thrown new light on the blackfish of 
the southern waters and will probably 



necessitate an entire revision of the 
genus. 

After the East Indies cruise was ended 
I went up to Japan early in February of 
1910 and obtained permission from the 
Toyo Hogei Kabushiki Kaisha [Oriental 
Whaling Co., Ltd.] to study and collect 
specimens at their stations. The presi- 
dent and directors of the company not 
only offered the free use of their ships 
and stations but also presented to the 
Museum all the skeletons which we de- 
sired to collect. 

This was an unrivaled opportunity, 
for the Japanese whales had been in the 
most complete scientific darkness and 
what species were to be found there was 
quite unknown. Work was begun at 
the island of Oshima close to the north- 
ern entrance of the Inland Sea and con- 
tinued for several months at this and 
neighboring villages. The skeleton of a 
splendid blue whale seventy-nine feet 
in length was secured. I was also in- 
tensely delighted to find that a whale 




Whaling station at Ailiawa, Japan. The stations are always located in a little bay near the feeding 
grounds of the whales. In the distance is seen a large steamer which was used by the Russians as a 
"floating factory" and was captured by the Japanese during the late war with Russia 




Shooting a sei whale. This photograph was snapped at a speed of one one-thousandth of a second 
just as the harpoon had struck the whale. The smoke, sparks and wads of oakum with which the gun 
was loaded are seen in the air. Note the whale's nostrils which are widely expanded as the animal was 
drawing in its breath preparatory to descending into the water 



called the sejhval by the Norwegians 




9tA whale drawing in its breath. The nostrils are shown 
widely expanded and greatly protruded 
286 



and the iwashi kujira ,or sardine whale 
by the Japanese, was being 
taken here. 

This whale, although 
forty to fifty feet long had 
never before been recorded 
in the Pacific and although 
it had formed the basis of 
the Japanese summer fish- 
ery for nearly fifteen years, 
not a single individual had 
reached the attention of a 
scientist. Whether or not 
this species will prove to be 
synonymous with the sei 
whale {Balfcnoptera borealis 
Lesson) of the Atlantic has 
not yet been determined, but 
it is the subject of a mono- 
graph now in preparation. 




Killer whale secured for the Museum. This species wages a continual warfare upon the gray whale 
and often assists the human hunters by frightening the gray whales so badly that they turn on their 
backs and lie motionless at the surface of the water 




The spout of the finback whale rises to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet. It is exceedingly 
difficult to photograph unless as in the present case, there happen to be mountains to form a dark back- 
groimd. Finbacks can undoubtedly swim faster than any other large whale, probably reaching a maxi- 
mum speed of thirty-five miles per hour 



287 




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CUTTING IN A SEI WHALE 
This method of cutting In is followed only in Japan. The entire posterior portion of the whale is 
drawn out upon the wharf 



290 



AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



291 



A fine killer whale {Orca orca) was also 
obtained at Oshima and later in the year 
a second killer was taken. 

After shipping the skeletons to New 
York from Shimonoseki, Japan, the work 
was continued in the northern part of 
the country at the little village of 
Aikawa. Many sejhval were taken here 
during the summer, giving a splendid 
opportunity to investigate the species. 

At Aikawa, skeletons of a large fin- 
back, a sixty-foot sperm whale and ten 
porpoises were secured. The sperm 
whale was killed especially for the Mu- 
seum by Captain Fred Olsen, who did 



his best to secure a large individual- 
OflF the coast of Japan, sperm whales 
sometimes appear in herds of from 
twenty or thirty up to five hundred 
individuals, and when a school is found 
it is an easy matter for each ship to kill 
five or six; one of the Japanese gunners 
even brought in as many as ten at one 
time. The crate containing the skull 
alone of the sperm whale which was 
shipped to the Museum, had a space 
measurement of twenty-six tons and was 
of such size that it would barely pass 
through the hatch of the ocean liner 
which carried it to New York. 




Cutting in a gray whale, Korea, 
upon tlie wharf 



The body is being divided so that the posterior half may be drawn 




Lower side of head and breast of female sperm whale. There is considerable difference in the shape 
of the head of the male and female of this species, a fact which has not been widely recognized by cetolo- 
gists 



The porpoises were of great interest. 
Ten specimens were secured comprising 
four different genera and five species. 
One proved to be a very extraordinary 
specimen representing a new genus 
which differs in many respects from all 
other members of the family. 

While in Japan it was learned that a 
whale called the " devilfish" by the Japa- 
nese, and which I could identify only as 
the California gray whale, was taken off 




The UiPKue of the sperm whale contrasts strongly with 
that of the humpback Hhown in a preceding photograph 
202 



the coast of Korea during the winter. 
This information was exceedingly in- 
teresting because, since 1880, this species 
had been lost to science and naturalists 
believed it to be extinct. It was im- 
possible to secure specimens of it at 
this time, but in the following year I 
returned to Japan to investigate the 
so-called "devilfish." As suspected, 
it was found to be the lost California 
gray whale and two complete skeletons 
were secured as well as photo- 
graphs, measurements and 
descriptions of over thirty 
individuals. A very large 
humpl)ack whale was also 
taken, and a third killer, to- 
gether with a considerable 
amount of alcoholic material 
for embryological and histo- 
logical study. The humpback 
skeleton was unfortunately 
destroyed by fire in the sum- 
mer of 1913 aft(T it had been 



AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



293 



shipped to Ward's Natural Science Estab- 
lishment at Rochester, New York, for 
cleaning. 

During the intervals of field work 
active operations for securing skeletons 
of the smaller Cetaceans by purchase 
and exchange have been going on and 
several very valuable specimens have 
been acquired. Among the most nota- 
ble is the complete skeleton and baleen 
of the pygmy right whale {Ncobalaena 
marginata) one of the rarest and most 
interesting of living whales. 



is being studied as rapidly as possible 
and the results published as volumes of 
the American Museum Memoirs under 
the title Monographs of the Pacific Cetacea. 
Part I, The California Gray Whale, 
has recently appeared and another 
volume dealing with the srjhval is well 
on the way toward completion. 

This material, illustrating one of the 
most interesting and important groups 
of living mammals, is at the present time 
utterly inaccessible to the public or to 
scientific men because of the lack of exhi- 




Removing the spermaceti from the head of a sperm whale. Twenty barrels of liquid spermaceti 
were secured from the head of this specimen, the skeleton of which was sent to the Museum 



Our collection of Cetaceans is to-day 
probably the most important in the 
world, especially in the almost complete 
representation of the large forms. We 
need greatly the bowhead, or Greenland 
right whale, and prospects are good for 
securing a skeleton through an expedi- 
tion which may leave for Hudson Bay 
next summer. Another humpback will 
also have to be obtained in the near 
future. 

The material which has been acquired 



bition space. The foundations have 
already been laid for the hall of water 
mammals in the east court, but opera- 
tions have been suspended indefinitely 
because the necessary funds for the com- 
pletion of the building have not been 
advanced by the city. 

No more skeletons can be prepared 
until room is available and this valuable 
material, much of which could never 
be duplicated is suffering badly and may 
even be permanently injured. The 



294 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



American Museum has an opportunity 
to exhibit the finest collection of aquatic 
mammals in the world. It has both the 
material and the land area and no need 
is greater than the completion of the 
court building. Until that time all 
exhibition work in this department is at 



a standstill, the collections which have 
been gathered at great labor and expense 
are in danger of deterioration, and the 
public is being deprived of one of the 
most instructive and interesting ex- 
hibits which any museum can offer its 
patrons. 




Side view of Pacific right whale porpoise (Tursio borealis). Three fragmentary skulls of this 
exceedingly rare species were the only specimens preserved in museums before the expedition to Japan 
secured three complete skeletons, with accompanying data of external structure. (Note the absence 
of a dorsal fin) 



7^3^ T 




X- 



Ventral view of Pacific right whale porpoise ( Tursio borealis) 




ilcad of a Pacific dolphin (Lagenorkynchug obliquidens) . This is one of the most common dolpliins 
of the North Pacific and yet It is rare In collections. Five skeletons were secured for the American 
MuMum 



KITCHEN MIDDENS OF JAMAICA 

REPORT OF AN INVESTIGATION OF THE KITCHEN MIDDENS OF THE 

ARAWAK INDIANS, WITH A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ON THIS 

ABORIGINAL RACE NOW EXTINCT ON THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA 

By G. C. Longley 

Introductory Note from the Department of Anthropology: A collection from Jamaica, 
which contains some fifteen hundred objects, has been presented to the Museimi by Mr. G. C. Longley 
of Pelham Manor, New York, and is now on exhibition in the South American gallery on the third floor. 
Mr. Longley for the last six years has passed the winter months on Jamaica, and being an enthusiastic 
amateur archaeologist, has occupied his time while there in exploring the Idtchen middens of the Arawak, 
the aboriginal inhabitants of the island. 

These kitchen middens are the refuse heaps of the Arawak and consist largely of shells and pottery, 
fish, turtle and cony bones, implements and of course ashes. The most common finds are fragments 
of pottery and celts and axes of stone. The pottery when ornamented generally has designs in straight 
lines which were made by pressiire of some sharp object while the clay was soft. The typical stone axes 
of these shell heaps are remarkable for workmanship and beauty of form. They are very symmetrical 
throughout, with the cutting edge nicely rounded and tapering to a point at the opposite end. Celts 
of shell are sometimes foimd, but they do not occur on Jamaica as frequently as on some of the other 
islands of the West Indies. 

Stone images, often in the form of pestles occur, and Mr. Longley was fortunate enough to find two 
good examples. They are thought to be idols and at any rate were probably connected in some way with 
religious rites. Mealing stones and stones used to grind and sharpen the celts and axes are well repre- 
sented, but the most interesting objects from the anthropological point of view are the cylindrical stone 
pendants. Identical pendants are worn to-day as insignia of office by chiefs or headmen of tribes, 
across the entire length of northern South America. 



FOR the past six winters I have been 
visiting the island of Jamaica, 
that wonderful winter paradise 
in the Caribbean Sea. It was not until 
1912 however, that I began to make a 
study of the aboriginal Indians of the 
island and to conduct systematic exca- 
vations in certain localities with the 
purpose of collecting as many relics as 
possible of this bygone race. 

These aborigines were the Arawak and 
were first known to civilization through 
the voyages of Columbus. It was on the 
second voyage of Columbus in 1494 
when he was coasting the southern side 
of Cuba that he sighted land to the south 
and soon came to anchor on the north 
coast of Jamaica. He named this land 
""Santa Gloria" and gave an eloquent 
description of the beauties he beheld, 
the verdure of the shore, the splendor of 
the mountains and its good harbors, one 
of which he called "Puerto Bueno." 
The Admiral here encountered Indians 
who at first made a hostile display, but 
who soon became friendly after they were 



given clothes and other articles unknown 
to them and later sent ambassadors to 
the Spaniards with gifts of fish, fruit and 
cassava bread. 

While one cannot say with absolute 
certainty where Columbus landed on 
Jamaica, and in consequence cannot give 
the exact locality of the Admiral's Santa 
Gloria and Puerto Bueno, it is probable 
that Santa Gloria was the modern Saint 
Anna's Bay and Puerto Bueno either 
the modern Dry Harbour or Rio Bueno, 
more likely the former, as the harbor 
better fits in with the description given 
by Columbus. It is interesting to note 
that the excavations I conducted in the 
interior of the island were made due 
south of Dry Harbour and Rio Bueno, 
so that the Indians met by the Spaniards 
in Puerto Bueno were probably of the 
same tribe as those from whose village 
sites I collected many relics. 

Columbus visited Santa Gloria again 
on his fourth voyage in 1503 and beached 
his ships in a small cove — and there is 
an inlet known to this day as "Christo- 

295 



296 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



pher's Cove." Columbus remained here 
for one year and the Spaniards with him 
had an opportunity to study the customs 
of the Arawak. 

Oviedo, official historian to the court 
of Spain, a contemporary of Columbus, 
tells of the almost ideal existence of the 
Arawak. From his accounts, as from 
those of later writers, it appears that 
they took life very easily. As is cus- 
tomary with so many primitive tribes 
the women tilled the fields, and did the 
principal work, while the men engaged 
in the chase or in fishing, and spent the 
intervals comfortably in their hamacas, 
forerunners of the modern hammocks, 
for which there is little doubt we are 
indebted to the Arawak. 

Picture to yourself a green, fertile 
hilltop, from which the wood has been 
cleared by fire. Surrounding it are 
several other hills, on which the woods 
and undergrowth are still in a virgin 
state, and which consequently allow a 
safe escape in case of a raid from the 
dreaded Caribs. In practically all of 
the West Indian islands, caves are plen- 
tiful, and must have proved of the utmost 
value as hiding-places. I have con- 
ducted explorations in a cave near 
Alexandria in which one could easily 
hide hundreds of men. The gulleys 
surrounding the hilltop on which the vil- 
lage site is found, assured a plentiful 
crop of cassava, while the neighboring 
hills swarmed with conies. Snails, too, 
were plentiful, and judging from the 
shell-heaps existing to-day, must have 
been eaten in enormous quantities. 

The hilltop, like all hilltops in a lime- 
stone country, has many hummocks on 
it, and upon these the aborigines built 
their octagonal houses, made of upright 
posts, thatched with palm leaves. Ac- 
cording to early writers, these huts fre- 
quently were of a considerable size, the 
floors made of hard clay and always swept 



clean. In front of each was a green 
slope, and back of it the refuse heap on 
which the empty shells, broken stone 
implements, and broken cooking pots 
were thrown. Apparently the cooking 
was also done here. In excavating some 
of these refuse heaps, we find thick 
layers of wood ashes, mingled with the 
shells. Upon the location of the village 
depends the character of the shells. In 
inland middens are large snail shells with 
an occasional sea product, such as a 
conch or clam shell. The bones of large 
fish are also found occasionally in inland 
middens, and I dug out some vertebrae 
of the rock fish, and the jaw bone of a 
parrot fish, which by its size indicates, 
that the fish was three or four feet in 
length. Ancient writers tell us that the 
large fishes were reserved for the chief so 
it may have been that we were uncover- 
ing the kitchen midden of the most 
important dwelling in the village. 

My excavations were conducted at St. 
Acre, Scarboro, Greenhill and Armor- 
dale, in St. Ann Parish, and at Logie 
Green in Clarendon Parish. My first 
operations were at St. Acre where some 
few years ago I discovered large shell 
deposits when a new road was being cut 
on the property. The next season I 
unearthed some fragments of pottery 
in the deposits. This led me to conduct 
larger excavations, and I engaged native 
laborers to assist me in the task. I dis- 
covered several small hummocks on the 
St. Acre hilltop, and made trenches 
through these, sometimes five or more 
feet deep, and found deposits of shell, 
ashes, charcoal and fragments of pot- 
tery and stone implements at different 
levels, as if the Indians had abandoned 
the village site, and had returned after 
a time. In this work I was frequently 
assisted by men who thought I was dig- 
ging for gold. I paid them for any 
specimens they brought to light and in 



KITCHEN MIDDENS OF JAMAICA 



297 



consequence the news spread after a 
while that I was paying real money for 
Indian stones, and I was rewarded by 
having many hatchets, stone pendants, 
and pestles brought in to me. 

My work at Greenhill was the most 
extensive, and from the middens there — 
although they are similar to the St. Acre 
and other middens — I obtained the best 
specimens. 

The extinction of the Arawak was so 
complete that there are but few simi- 
lar cases in history. People like this 
race, living in a tropical climate, quite 
unused to work of a laborious nature, 
would speedily feel the effects of forced 
labor. After the Spaniards came, they 
needed workers for the gold mines in 
Haiti, for the making of roads and the 
cultivation of crops in Jamaica. They 
forced the Indians to labor for them, and 
with the cruelty characteristic of the 
age, killed off the natives with almost 
incredible swiftness. 

It is only natural that the Arawak 
came to have a different view of people 
whom they at first fondly imagined were 
sent from heaven, and it was not long 
before they took to their mountain re- 
treats, in order to escape forced labor 
and a painful death. But what could a 
peaceful race, with practically no weap- 
ons of defence, do against the superior 
weapons and the bloodhounds of the 
Spaniards? The Jamaican Arawak were 
exterminated by 1558, only sixty-four 
years after the discovery of the island, 
and none were left to tell a later genera- 
tion of their tribal customs. The meager 
accounts given by Columbus and his 
contemporaries have to be supplemented 
by such conclusions as we can draw from 
a study of the relics left in their kitchen 
middens. 

Columbus, in his description of the 
natives of Jamaica, lays special stress 
upon their proficiency in the art of work- 




Two of a considerable series of spindle-shaped 
celts found in Jamaica by Mr. Ijongley. They 
were probably used as chisels. The specimens fig- 
ured are of black and green stone respectively 

ing stone, and mentions having seen some 
good stone ornaments worn by the heads 
of tribes. 

Two notable objects in the collection 
are the two idols or zemes of brown sand- 
stone, about five and one-half inches 
in height. They crudely represent the 
human form, and undoubtedly were con- 




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Idols of brown sandstone (5^ inches high). Such idols were undoubtedly connected with the 
religious rites of the Arawak. Various animals also were used as idols, the snake on the island of Haiti, 
the parrot on Jamaica and the monkey on the more southern islands 




The most interesting objects in the Longley collection, from tlie anthropological point of view, 
are cylindrical stone pendants. Pendants identical with the large one at the left and the one shown on 
the following page are worn to-day as insignia of office by chiefs or headmen of tribes across the entire 
length of northern South America. The hole in the pendant at the right is so small that one wonders how 
the Arawak could have drilled it without the use of metal tools. The white stone (1 J inches long) in 
the middle has not only a hole through the upper end but also a hole drilled at right angles to it length- 
wise from one end of the pendant to the other. In the same class with the stone pendants are shell 
ornaments with holes drilled through them, which the Arawak also wore suspended around the neck 
300 



KITCHEN MIDDENS OF JAMAICA 



301 



tiected with the reUgious rites of the 
Arawak. Like many prehistoric tribes, 
the Arawak had good and bad deities 
which they worshipped. They had in 
fact, it is known, several goddesses to 
whom homage was paid, and offerings 
were made at certain seasons of the year, 
and on certain festivals. These cere- 
monies were conducted by the shamans, 
who were both priests and medicine men. 
The deities generally were represented by 
zemes, small stone or wooden idols, the 
former often in the shape of amulets 
which were worn around the neck, sus- 
pended from a cord. Various animals 
were also worshipped, the snake on Haiti 
and Porto Rico, the turtle and the parrot 
on Jamaica, and the monkey on the more 
southern islands. 

Among the objects made by working 
stone, fall also the pendant ornaments. 
These have been fashioned with consid- 
erable skill and certainly with great 
patience, when one takes into account 
that the Arawak had no metal tool to 
work with, but laboriously fashioned the 
pendants with the aid of sand, stone and 
an incredible amount of rubbing. The 
hole in the pendants is often so small 
that it makes one wonder how the Ara- 
wak could have drilled it with the rude 
tools they had. 

Pottery is perhaps the most important 
class of Arawak relics, because the forms 
of their vessels and the kind of designs 
used in decorating them show the artis- 
tic status of these ancient people. They 
used a great deal of pottery in cooking 
their food over wood fires. The evidence 
of this is seen in the external smoked and 
blackened portions of vessels discovered. 
The pottery is fragmentary, as is always 
the case in these middens. Entire ob- 
jects of terra cotta from the West Indies 
are extremely rare, having been found 
only occasionally in caves, where they 
were put with the remains of the dead, 




Cyliadrical stone pendant of the Arawak such 
as is worn to-day by chiefs of tribes in the north- 
ern part of South America. Such pendants were 
fashioned with the aid of sand and stone and an 
incredible amount of rubbing 




POTTERY FRAGMENTS FROM JAMAICA 

The Arawak used a great deal of pottery In cooking their food over wood flres, a fact proved by the 
•moked and blackened portions of vessels discovered. The vessels were made by coiling bands of wet 
clay one upon another and afterward smoothing them down with a stone before firing. Decorations 
when they exist have conslclorable variety, made with a sharp instrument such as a shell or flint 
302 



KITCHEN MIDDENS OF JAMAICA 



303 



as receptacles of food for the last journey 
of the departed. 

Arawak pottery was never glazed and 
I could not find any on Jamaica that had 
been painted in colors, the clay usually 
being an even shade of brick red, with 
an occasional sherd of a buff color. A 
greater part of the pottery found is 
without ornamentation of any kind. 
It is only now and then that a decorated 
piece is discovered. 

There is a great variety however in the 
thickness, size and shape of the vessels. 
Some have handles, or lugs; some have 
none. Some are canoe-shaped, the bow 
being the " pouring out " end ; others are 



round, and some have rims with turned- 
in edges. There are both deep and shal- 
low vessels, but no evidence that pottery 
covers were used. I have found one or 
two sherds, as the broken pieces of a pot 
are called, that indicate in what manner 
vessels were built up. This was done 
by coiling bands of wet clay one upon 
another, and afterward smoothing these 
down with a stone or other flat object. 
When one considers that the Arawak did 
not know the use of the potter's wheel, 
it seems remarkable that they could 
fashion their vessels with so much deli- 
cacy of outline, and such superior work- 
manship. 





Three handles of pottery vessels. The first is a crude representation of a human face, the second 
shows incised decoration. The third handle must have been made by pinching the material of the 
vessel while still plastic with the thumb and index finger 




304 



AT A WELL IN SOMALILAND 



AN EPISODE OF A MUSEUM EXPEDITION 



By Carl E. Akeley 



With photographs by the Author 



IT was a couple of days after crossing 
the Houd — we had come a hun- 
dred miles of waterless desert in 
Somaliland. We were camped beside a 
"tug," a dry river course where by dig- 
ging wells in the stream bed sufficient 
water for the camels and sixty men was 
obtainable. Hunting in the open bush 
of the region, we had seen many ostriches 
during the two days. It was my first 
experience with these wary birds and 
they had managed to escape on each and 
every occasion of our meeting. I found 
that instead of hiding their heads in the 
sand, leaving the great black bodies as 
targets for my rifle, they kept their bodies 
hidden behind the bush with only their 
heads exposed, each head just large 
enough to carry a pair of very keen 
eyes. As a result of being continually 
outwitted by them I came to feel that 
an ostrich was game well worth while, 
that I would rather bag an ostrich than 
a lion. 

One Sunday morning I set out with 
the intention of devoting the day to an 
ostrich hunt. Concluding that the small- 
er the party the better the opportunity, 
I took only a mule and my syce. In the 
early morning when only a half mile 
from camp I met an old hyena who was 
loafing along after a night out. A 
moment later one look at his dead car- 
cass was enough to satisfy me that he 
would not make the desirable specimen 
I had thought, for his skin was badly 
diseased. A little later I shot a good 
wart hog for our scientific collection. 
Leaving the specimen where it lay, I 
marked the spot and continued in search 
of the plume-bearers. 

A little way farther on I climbed to the 



top of a termite hill about eight feet high 
to look the country over with field 
glasses. As I held the glasses to my 
eyes while adjusting the focus, I suddenly 
realized that the letter S that I was focus- 
ing on was the head and neck of an 
ostrich and that there was a second letter 
S beside it. The birds remained per- 
fectly motionless watching and I did like- 
wise, locating their position meanwhile 
by the termite hills which were nearly in 
line between us. Suddenly the heads 
ducked and disappeared behind the bush. 
I dropped from my perch and ran rapidly 
to where they had been, but found only 
their trail in the sand. 

When I had given up tracking them 
and was about to start farther afield, I 
came into an opening in the bush that 
was about thirty yards wide and two 
hundred yards long. Near the center 
of the opening was a dense green bush 
a dozen feet in diameter. A beautiful 
cock ostrich broke into the clearing at 
full speed just below the bush and as I 
raised my rifle he disappeared behind 
the bush, so I held ready to catch him 
as he passed over the remaining fifteen 
or twenty yards of clear ground. I 
stood there ready until I felt foolish, 
when I ran quickly to the bush exp act- 
ing to find him just on the other side. 
He was nowhere in sight but his trail 
told the story. As he had come into 
the open he had seen me and when 
behind the bush he had stopped short 
as indicated by a great hole and swirl 
of sand where he had caught himself 
by one foot, had turned at right angles 
and run straight away the length of 
the clearing, keeping the bush between 
himself and his enemy. I got one shot 

306 



306 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



at him later — putting my sights at 
seven hundred yards, I placed a bullet 
in the sand between his legs. 

We returned to camp later in the after- 
noon and after a little rest and refresh- 
ment I started out again with only the 
syce and carrying the necessary tools 
to get the head of the wart hog that I 
had shot in the morning. We had no 
difficulty in finding the place but there 
was nothing to be seen of the pig. The 
place was strewn with vulture feathers 
but surely vultures could not make away 
with the bones. A crash in the bushes 
at one side led me in a hurry in that di- 
rection and a little later I saw my pig's 
head in the mouth of a hyena traveling 
up the slope of a ridge out of range. 

We started for camp as the sun was 
setting. As we came near to the place 
where I had shot the hyena in the morn- 
ing it occurred to me that perhaps there 
might be another hyena about the car- 
cass and feeling a bit " sore " at the tribe 
for stealing my wart hog, I thought I 
might pay off the score by getting a good 
specimen of a hyena for the collections. 
The syce led me to the spot but the dead 
hyena was nowhere in sight. There was 
the blood where he fell and in the dusk 
we could make out a trail in the sand 
where he had been dragged away. 

Advancing a few steps a slight sound 
attracted my attention and glancing to 
one side I got a glimpse of a shadowy 
form going behind a bush. I shot hastily 
into the bush, and as we started forward 
the snarl of a leopard warned us of the 
chances we were taking. We waited 
a few moments and there was no further 
demonstration. 

I began looking about for the best 
way out of it, for I had no desire to try 
conclusions with a possibly wounded 
leopard when it was so late in the day 
that I could not see the sights of my 
rifle. My intention was to leave it until 



morning and if it had been wounded, 
there might then be a chance of finding 
it. I turned to the left to cross to the 
opposite bank of a deep narrow tug and 
when there I found that I was on an 
island where the tug forked and by going 
along a short distance to the point of 
the island I would be in position to see 
behind the bush where the leopard had 
stopped. 

While peering about I detected the 
beast crossing the tug some fifteen yards 
above and foolishly began shooting while • 
I could not see to aim. I could see 
where the bullets struck as the sand 
spurted up beyond the leopard. The 
first two shots went above her, but the 
third scored. The leopard stopped and 
I thought she was killed. The syce 
broke into a song of triumph which was 
promptly cut short by another song 
such as only a thoroughly angry leopard 
is capable of making as it charges. For 
just a flash I was paralyzed with fear, 
then came power for action. I worked 
the bolt of my rifle and was conscious 
that the magazine was empty. At the 
same instant I realized that a solid point 
cartridge rested in the palm of my left 
hand, one that I had intended as I came 
up to the dead hyena to replace with 
soft nose. If I could but escape the 
leopard until I could get the cartridge 
into the chamber! 

As she came up the bank on one side 
of the point of the island, I dropped 
down the other side and ran about to 
the point from which she had charged, 
by which time the cartridge was in place, 
and I wheeled — to face the leopard in 
mid-air. The rifle was knocked flying 
and in its place was eighty pounds of 
frantic cat. She struck me high in the 
chest and caught my upper right arm 
with her mouth, chewing and growling 
fiercely. With my left hand I caught 
her throat and tried to wrench my right 



EPISODE OF A MUSEUM EXPEDITION 



307 



arm free but succeeded only in drawing 
the full length of the arm through her 
mouth an inch at a time. I was con- 
scious of no pain, only of the sound of 
the crushing of tense muscles and the 
choking snarling grunts of the beast. 



We went to the ground, the leopard 
underneath, my right hand in her mouth, 
my left clutching her throat, my knees 
on her lungs, my elbows in her armpits 
spreading her front legs apart so that 
her frantic clawing did nothing more 




The natives come long distances to water their camels and sheep at the wells of the desert 




Three camel men of the expedition. Natives of Somaliland are devotees of courage and ostrasize 
any of their fellows who show the white feather 



308 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



than tear my shirt. Her body was 
twisted in an effort to get hold of the 
ground to turn herself but the loose sand 
offered her no hold. For a moment there 
was no change in our positions and for 
the first time I hoped for a chance. Up 
to then it had been simply a good fight 
in which I expected to lose, but if I cjuld 
keep my advantage perhaps the syce 
would come with a knife. I called but 
to no effect. I still held and surged down 
with my knees; one hand down her 
throat as far as I could thrust it and the 
other gripping her throat, was certainly 
a strangle hold. I felt her relax, a sort 
of letting go although she was still strug- 
gling. At the same time I felt myself 




Some of the Homall wells are eighty feot deep 
and require at least eight natives supported one 
above the other on steps along the walls of the 
well, to pass the water in wooden buckets (chatties) 
to those waiting at the top 



weakening similarly, and then it became 
a question as to which would give up 
first. 

After what seemed an interminable 
passage of time, I let go and tried to 
stand, calling to the syce that I was 
finished. He now screwed up his cour- 
age sufficiently to approach. Then the 
leopard began to gasp and I saw that 
she might recover, so I asked the syce 
tor the knife. He had thrown it away in 
his fear, but quickly found it and I at 
labt made certain that the beast was 
dead. I tried to shoulder the leopard to 
carry it to camp but was finally satisfied 
to get myself to camp. 

When I came inside the zereha, my 
companions were at dinner before one 
of the tents. They had heard the shots 
and had speculated on the probabilities. 
They had decided that I was in a mix-up 
with a lion or with natives, but that I 
would have the enemy or the enemy 
would have me before they could get to 
me, so they had continued their dinner. 
The fatalistic spirit of the country had 
prevailed. When I came within their 
range of vision however, my appearance 
was quite sufficient to arrest attention 
and moreover my demands for all the 
antiseptics in camp gave them some- 
thing to do. While my companions were 
getting the surgical appliances ready, my 
boys were stripping me and dousing me 
with cold water, and at that time I re- 
gretted that the leopard had not been 
victorious. 

Later in the evening they brought 
the leopard in and laid it beside my cot. 
The first shot as she went behind the 
bush had broken the toes of the right 
hind foot. The only other bullet that 
struck her was the last before she 
charged and that had creased her just 
under the skin on the back of the neck, 
from the shock of which she had instantly 
recovered, 



NEWS FROM THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



By Edmund Otis Hovey 



THE Museum received advices 
November 23 from the Crocker 
Land expedition to the effect 
that Donald B. MacMillan, leader of 
the expedition, accompanied by Ensign 
Fitzhugh Green, engineer and physicist 
of the party, had journeyed one hundred 
and twenty-five miles northwest from 
Cape Thomas Hubbard across the ice 
of the polar sea in search for Crocker 
land, the land whose mountainous 
1 eights Admiral Peary thought that 
he descried from an elevation of 1,400 
feet on Cape Thomas Hubbard in 
1906. For two days Messrs. MacMil- 
lan and Green thought that they saw 
land, but this proved to be a mirage, 
and they finally concluded that Crocker 
Land does not exist, at least within the 
range originally ascribed to it. 

The journey out and back from Cape 
Thomas Hubbard occupied two months 
and proved to be extremely perilous. 
The party crossed thirty-eight leads on 
thin ice, lost most of their dogs on the 
journey and on the day after they got 
back to Cape Thomas Hubbard, in the 
middle of May, "the ice on the polar 
sea broke up and became a hideous, 
grinding chaos of broken ice on which 
they would certainly have perished had 
they not got back as they did." 

Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and 
botanist of the expedition, through 
whom the foregoing announcement has 
come to the Museum, writes further as 
follows, his letter being dated August 29, 
1914, and written on board Knud 
Rasmussen's motor boat just south of 
Cape Alexander, only fifteen miles from 
Etah: 

Knud Rasmussen's boat (small motor 
boat) has got to a hunting camp where Jot 



Small and I have been kept for six days by 
ice and wind, unable to return by our motor 
boat past Cape Alexander to Etah, and 
Rasmussen's boat can not get by either. 
His ship must leave [Thule, North Star Bay] 
for Denmark day after to-morrow. On 
account of ice conditions his motor boat can 
not wait to go to Etah after our mail and 
MacMillan's cablegrams. Jot and I came 
down with three Eskimo to kill walrus for 
our winter supply and have been unable to 
get back since August 24. Thus we met 
Rasmussen's boat. I may say that we are 
all well, and have given up hope for a ship 
from America this year; that Mac has said 
that we must get back next year; that we are 
trying against heavy odds to get a wireless 
through this coming winter; that we are 
planning a strenuous year's work for this 
next season; and that everything thus far 
has been eminently successful, both explora- 
tion and scientific work. 

I am very much concerned as to what 
effect this inability of Rasmussen's boat to 
get to Etah will have, but we have been up 
to the very base of Cape Alexander (a quarter 
of an hour ago) and the sea is raging. Ap- 
parently there is no hope to get any of our 
mail back until winter sledging begins. Then 
we shall be able to get our mail through as we 
did last year, from Upernivik. 

Tanquary and I spent the summer at 
Umanak, North Star Bay, studying the 
geology and biology of the region there. 
MacMillan and Green got back in the middle 
of May after two months on the trail. I had 
to return from Bay Fjord because of a frozen 
foot (all well now). Only three of us started, 
with seven Eskimo, ten sledges in all. 

At the best I have only a few more min- 
utes to write, for Rasmussen's men will stop 
only long enough, when they reach our camp 
again, to unload the supplies and mail, for 
the seas and ice necessitate their immediate 
return to North Star Bay. Ice conditions 
all along the coast have been bad this year. 

In conclusion, let all our friends know 
that we are well and contented, that for 
another year at least, we have plenty of every- 
thing we need to keep the wolf from the door 
of our igloo. Tell our friends that though 
we think of them often, our work is not yet 

309 



310 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



done, and until it is we shall not be homesick. 
Finally, best regards to everybody. 

Also commend K. Rasmussen for his 
unswerving, continued and exquisite courtesy 
toward our expedition. I think some public 
mention should be made of it. 

Of course the organizing institutions, 
the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, the American Geographical Society 
and the University of Illinois, are keenly 
disappointed to learn of the non-existence 
of Crocker Land at the place where it 
was reported to be, but they await 
receipt of the full reports which will 
come from Mr. MacMillan next April 
or May before drawing any conclusions 
from this portion of the Crocker Land 



expedition's work. Undoubtedly the sci- 
entific data, including soundings, which 
must have been secured by Mr. MacMil- 
lan and Ensign Green will prove of the 
highest value, even if they show that the 
supposed land does not exist. Mr. Ek- 
blaw's letters indicate that all the other 
portions of the program of work were 
carried out satisfactorily and although 
we have not the gratification of getting 
full reports and personal letters from 
all the staff, we know that the men were 
at Etah and well at the end of the sum- 
mer and that they received the missives 
which were sent to them by way of 
Copenhagen last spring. 



MUSEUM NOTES 



The sixth annual joint session of the 
American Academy of Arts and Letters and 
the National Institute of Arts and Letters 
was held in New York on November 19 and 
20. The President and Trustees of the Mu- 
seum tendered a reception to the members of 
these two academies and a representative of 
the Academie Frangaise. The reception also 
marked the opening of the " Men of the Old 
Stone Age " exhibit on the fourth floor of the 
Museum. 

Mr. Minor C. Keith has deposited the 
greater part of his archaeological collection 
from Costa Rica in the Museum as a loan. 
The collection consists of a large number of 
gold and jade objects and a very complete 
.series of ceramics numbering many thousand 
specimens. To accommodate this loan collec- 
tion, rearrangement of the Mexican hall has 
been made necessary. The small rooms ad- 
joining the second floor entrance will be used 
temporarily for the exhibition of some of the 
casts formerly displayed in the Mexican hall. 

Through the cooperation of the Trustees 
and the personal interest of President Henry 
Fairfield Osborn, the employees of the Ameri- 
can Mu8(!um have organized a store whereby 
they are enabled to secure food products at 
a slight advance over cost. 



The initial steps for the organization were 
taken by a committee appointed by President 
Osborn, who having in mind the furtherance 
of his plan to benefit the employees materi- 
ally, appointed a subcommittee of the Trus- 
tees to hear the plans of the organization and 
report the feasibility of the undertaking. The 
project received the sanction of the Trustees, 
a permanent organization was effected and 
an authorized capitalization of fifteen hun- 
dred dollars was voted by the amployees. 
All of the money necessary to conduct the 
business has been subscribed by them and its 
affairs are administered entirely outside of 
Museum hours. 

The store proper is advantageously situ- 
ated in a room in the basement and the work 
there is performed by a storekeeper and 
assistant hired by the association. The pro- 
ject is distinctively cooperative, with author- 
ized payment of dividends on capital stock, 
the creation of a reserve fund and the dis- 
tribution of any remainder as a bonus accord- 
ing to the amount of the purchases of the 
subscriber. 

Besides dealing in staple food products^ 
the store supplies the employees with lunches, 
handles fruit and receives orders for certain 
other hou.sehold commodities. The privi- 
leges of j)urchase have been extended to all 
employees and members of their families, 



MUSEUM NOTES 



311 



to those affiliated with the Museum and to 
the employees of similar institutions. 

The store was opened for business on 
November 7. Its success has far exceeded 
the expectations of the officers and it will soon 
be incorporated under the laws of the State. 

Word was received from the Congo expedi- 
tion November 6, that twenty-two cases of 
zoological material had been shipped from 
Stanleyville. It is expected that Mr. Chapin 
will sail for home on the steamship "Hawai- 
ian" on November 18 and that Mr. Lang will 
follow as soon as all arrangements for ship- 
ment of the remaining collections can be made. 

Since the last issue of the Journal the fol- 
lowing persons have become members of the 
Museum: 

Life Members, Mrs. C. H. Isham and 
Messrs. Chauncey M. Depew, Jr. and 
William Dutcher; 

Annual Members, Mrs. Henry Kersey 
Andrew, Mrs. G. A. Archer, Mrs. George 
L. Carnegie, Mrs. Leopold Cohn, Mrs. 
Goddard DuBois, Mrs. F. Lawrence 
Embree, Mrs. Edward N. Gibbs, Mrs. 
George Walton Green, Mrs. Charles L. 
Livingston, Mrs. Herbert McBride, Mrs. 
E. Howard O'Flyn, Mrs. Charles Lane 
Poor, Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., Mrs. J. 
Trowbridge Vredenburgh, Misses Milli- 
cent F. Eady, M. D. Graham, Blanche 
Hirsch, Frances E. Martin, Louise Vel- 
TiN, Dr. G. K. Dickinson, Dr. Georg Orn- 
stein, and Messrs. Benjamin Abert, 
George Gordon Battle, A. H. Brawner, 
G. H. Eiswald, Lewis A. Eldridge, Henry 
Fletcher, Goelet Gallatin, Walter Fuld 
Gips, Peter Gouled, G. S. Greene, Jr., 
A. Augustus Healy, Frederick R. Hois- 
iNGTON, Alfred J. Johnson, Louis Long, 
William A. Moore, Aaron Naumburg, 
William E. Reed, E. Quincy Smith, Ray- 
mond W. Storm, Maurice S. H. Unger, 
Elmore Curt Walther, Louis M. Weiller 
and George L. Wheelock. 

In the New York City building at the 
Panama-Pacific Exposition, the gardens, 
libraries and museums of New York will have 
a booth some twenty-four feet long at the 
left of the entrance, with interior and exterior 
wall space for the display of photographs. 
Each institution of the city has been allotted 
approximately ninety square feet of surface. 
The Museum's representative on the com- 



mittee of arrangements is Dr. Chester A. 
Reeds of the department of geology and in- 
vertebrate palaeontology. 

The Museum has just received from 
Messrs. M. Guggenheim and Sons the gift of a 
small collection of prehistoric objects found 
in a copper mine at Chuquicamata, Chile. 
The collection consists for the most part of 
hafted stone hammers and wooden scrapers. 
These were the implements used by the 
Indians in pre-Spanish days in collecting the 
copper (atacamite) with which they made 
knives and other implements. 

Rev. Gilbert L. Wilson, who for several 
years has been working among the Hidatsa 
Indians of North Dakota under the direction 
of Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of the depart- 
ment of anthropology, has this year been 
devoting himself to the study of primitive 
Indian agriculture. 

The value to the artist and art student of 
the Museum's collections of objects from pre- 
historic and present primitive peoples is 
rapidly becoming known. There have always 
been a few teachers who have understood the 
richness and value of this field, and who have 
occasionally sent their pupils here to copy 
primitive designs and color schemes. The 
number of students who have availed them- 
selves of this privilege during the last two 
years however reaches several thousand. 
For the study of conventionalized figures and 
color schemes to be employed in carpet, 
rug and wall paper manufactories or to fill 
some of the many needs where designers are 
required, there is certainly no better original 
field than that presented in the ancient Peru- 
vian textiles and pottery vessels as well as in 
numerous objects in the American Indian 
collections on display in the American 
Museum. 

Through the courtesy of Dr. J. Leon Wil- 
liams his private collection of casts of pre- 
historic human remains from the Pleistocene 
of Europe was placed on exhibition last 
winter in the fossil mammal hall on the 
fourth floor of the Museum, where it has 
attracted much interest. This exhibit has 
now been rearranged and greatly extended 
in connection with the studies upon "Men of 
the Old Stone Age" by Professor Henry Fair- 
field Osborn. 

The new exhibit, opened to the public on 



312 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



November 22 serves to show the progress of 
discovery, especially in the last few years 
with regard to the primitive races of man 
which inhabited Europe during and since 
the Great Ice Age. In addition to the casts 
of the more important skulls and other re- 
mains, there are weapons and other imple- 
ments illustrating the successive cultural 
stages and illustrations of the remarkable 
drawings and sculptures preserved in the 
caverns of France and Spain. Reconstruc- 
tions by Dr. J. H. McGregor of the heads of 
the three principal ancestral types of man, 
the Pithecanthropus or Ape-Man of Java, the 
Eoanthropus or Piltdown Man, and the 
Neanderthal Man {Homo neanderthalensis) 
are believed to be as nearly accurate as it is 
possible to make them. Two of Mr. Charles 
II. Knight's brilliant restorations further 
illustrate the appearance and habits of the 
most important types of palajolithic man, 
the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon races. 
A series of skulls and other remains of living 
and extinct primates, lemurs, monkeys and 
anthropoid apes, serves for comparison with 
man's nearest relatives and collateral ances- 
tors among the lower animals. The subject 
of prehistoric man, his ancestry, environment, 
habits and culture, will be fully and authori- 
tatively treated in Professor Osborn's forth- 
coming book. 

Although the City did not make the de- 
sired appropriation for the extension of the 
Museum's educational work, so many urgent 
requests have been received from teachers of 
the lower east side for the opening of a lecture 
center to accommodate the pupils who can- 
not come to the Museum that a local lecture 
center has been opened at the Washington 
Irving High School. The courtesy of the 
high school in placing its hall at the disposal 
of the Museum is greatly appreciated and 
marks an important step in the cooperation 
of pubhc schools and the Museum. 

Mb. James Barnes of the Bames-Kearton 
expedition opened the series of lectures in the 
members' course on November 12 with one of 
the most interesting sets of motion pictures 
that has ever been shown at the Museum. 
Mr. Barnes has very kindly presented a set 
of his films to the Museum that they may be 
preserved as permanent records. 

During the summer the scientific survey of 
Porto Rico made considerable progress. In 



this work several departments of the Museum 
are cooperating with the New York Academy 
of Sciences, under whose general auspices 
the survey is being prosecuted. Following 
the preliminary work last spring by Professor 
Cramp ton and Dr. Lutz more detailed investi- 
gations were made during July and August. 
Mr. Roy W. Miner devoted several weeks to 
the study of marine invertebrates, especially 
those of the harbor of San Juan. He also 
made investigations at Ponce, Mayaguez and 
in some inland situations. Mr. John T. 
Nichols of the department of ichthyology and 
herpetology began the investigation of the 
fishes with very satisfactory results in the way 
of an extensive series of types and in the addi- 
tion of new records to the little-known fish 
fauna of this island. Mr. F. E. Watson of 
the Museum with Mr. H. B. Barber of the 
Academy carried forward the entomological 
investigations on the island, making extensive 
collections in a number of the characteristic 
ecological localities.- 

In December Professor Crampton will 
make another visit to the island in order to. 
present a report of progress to the Governor 
and Legislature of Porto Rico and to take 
back a series of named specimens which may 
serve as a nucleus for an island museum. 
He will also carry on field work in the region 
of Guanica Harbor and in the arid southwest- 
ern portion of the island where a typical desert 
locality is to be found. 

Mr. William B. Peters of the department 
of preparation and Mr. Prentice B. Hill, 
assistant in the department of geology, have 
returned from Weyer's Cave, Virginia, where 
they secured a quantity of material from 
grottoes which have lately been discovered in 
the cave. This is to be used, together with 
the collection made last year, in the reproduc- 
tion of a typical grotto in the Museum, work 
on which is progressing rapidly. 

Mr. a. J. MuTCHLER and Mr. F. E. Wat- 
son of the department of invertebrate zool- 
ogy have recently returned from four weeks' 
work in Florida, where they have been making 
a survey of the insect life of the northern part 
of the state. In spite of the unfavorable 
weather conditions, more than eight thousand 
specimens of insects were secured. 

Dr. Frank M. Chapman has just returned 
from Heron Lake, Minnesota, where he made 
studies for a group of the birds of that region. 



INDEX OF VOLUME XIV 



Names of contributors are set in small capitals 



Accessions: 

Anthropology, 46, 119, 168, 215, 311 

Geology and Invertebrate Palaeontology, 80, 
119, 272 

Ichthyology and Herpetology, 48, 119 

Library, 119, 213 

Mammalogy and Ornithology, 78, 119, 213 

Mineralogy, 120 

Vertebrate Palaeontology, 44, 167 
African hall, 166, 175-187 

Akeley, C. E. An Episode of a Museum Expe- 
dition, 304-308; The Wild Ass of Somaliland, 
112-117 
Akeley, C. E., 166, 174-187 
Algonkin and the Thunderbird, 71-72 
Allen, .1. A., 271 
Ambrosetti, Dr., 46 

American Anthropological Association, 44, 46 
American Association of Museums, 166 
Ancient American History, Chapter of, 16-31 
Anderson, R. M., 266, 270 
Andrews, R. C. The American Museum Whale 

Collection, 274-294 
Andrews, R. C, 48, 167, 187 
Anthony, H. E. New Faunal Conditions in the 

Canal Zone, 238-247 
Anthony, H. E., 78 

Art and Science in the American Museum, 83-88 
Ass, Wild, 112-117 
Attendance, 44 

Baker, G. F., 77 

Bandelier, A. F. A., 147-148 

Barnes, James, 215, 312 

Barringer, D. M., 120 

Baynes, E. H. What one Village is Doing for 

the Birds, 149-156 
Beaver, American, 123-135 
Bickmore, A. S., 122, 144 
Bird protection, 149-156 
Birds, Importation of, 69-70 
Blind, Work with the, 39-42, 167, 215 
Boas PYanz, 167 
Bowdoin, G. S., 77 
Bridgman, H. L. My Life with the Eskimo 

(Review), 261-266 
Broom, Robert. Further O bservations on South 

African Fossil Reptiles, 139-143 
Broom, Robert. 43, 44, 137-138 
Brown, Barnum, 48, 214, 269 

Canadian Arctic Expedition, 80 

Canal Zone, New Faunal Conditions in, 238-247 

Cave exhibit, 168 

Carnegie Institution, 119 

Chapin, James, 118, 269 

Chapman, F. M., 271, 312 

Cherrie, G. K., 213 

Chichen Itza, 17-31 

Choate, J. H., 170 

Cole, P.-C, 47 

CoUecting in Cut)a, 99-106 



Congo Expeditions, 118, 269. 311 

Contents, Table of, 1, 49, 81, 121, 169, 217, 273 

Copper Deposits in Arizona, 201-206 

Copper Queen mine model, 166, 216, 248-252 

Crampton, H. E., 80, 216, 312 

Crimmins, J. D., 48 

Crocker Land Expedition, 78. 209-212, 270, 309- 
310 

Curtis. E. S. Plea for Haste in Making Docu- 
mentary Records of the American Indian, 
163-165 

Cutting. R. F., 77, 269 

Da Silva, Simoens, 272 

Dawn Man of Piltdown, 188-200 

Dean, Bashpord. Fish Exhibits in the Ameri- 
can Museum. 32-35 

Dickerson. M. C. Charles R. Knight — Painter 
and Sculptor of Animals, 82-98 ; Forestry in 
the State of New York, 221-224; New 
African Hall Planned by Carl E. Akeley, 
175-187 

Dodge, C. H., 269 

Dolan, W. A., 214 

Douglas, James, Copper Deposits in Arizona, 
201-206 

Douglas, James, 166, 172, 248-252 

Education, Public, 76-77, 269, 312 

Ekblaw, W. E., 212 

Elwyn, Adolph, 272 

Eskimo, My Life with. 261-266 

Eskimo, Prince Albert Sound, 264 

Expeditions: Barnes-Kearton, 215; Canadian 
Arctic, 80; Central American, 271; Congo, 
118, 269, 311; Crocker Land, 78, 209-212, 
270, 309-310; Cuba, 99-106; Florida, 312; 
Panama, 238-247; Porto Rico, 80, 216, 312; 
Roosevelt South American, 78. 145-146, 
213-214; South American, 269; Stefansson- 
Anderson, 270 

Extinct mammal exhibit, 47 

Finley, J. H.,46 

Finsch collection, 119 

Fish Exhibits in the American Museum, 32-35, 47, 

120, 167 
Fish of the Middle West, Some. 36-38 
Fisher. G. C. 46 
Flower. W. H., 6 
Forestry, 221-224, 271 
Fort St. John, 253 
Fort Vermilion, 253-256 
Fossil Reptiles, 136-143 
Francis, H. R., 271 
Franklin, Dwight, Some Fish of the Middle 

West, 36-38 
Frick, H. C, 77 

Gaflfron, E., 119 

Game Reservation, Hunt in, 66-68 

Gifts, 43, 78, 80, 213, 311 

313 



314 



INDEX OF VOLUME XIV 



GoDDARD, P. E. Along Peace River, 2;i3-260; 
New Storage Rooms, 73-75 

Goddard, P. E., 44, 47, 78, 270 

Granger, Walter, 44 

Gratacap, L. p. Shell Collection in the Ameri- 
can Museum, 267-268 

Greer, Dessie, 272 

Green, Fitzhugh, 210 

Gregory, W. K. The Dawn Man of Piltdown, 
England, 188-200 

Gregory, W. K., 43, 78 

Grossbeck, J. A., 214 

Groups, Story of Museum, 2-15, 50-65 

Hard, A. W., 213 

Harriman, Mrs. E. H., 43 

Harvey, Eli, 166 

Health exhibits, 119 

Hitchcock lectures, 43, 118 

HovEY, E. O. Copper Queen Mine Model, 248- 
252; News from the Crocker Land Expedi- 
tion, 309-310 

Hovey, E. O., 46, 166, 168, 216 

Howell, E. E., 119 

Hundertpfimd, Christian, 214 

Hunt, H. J., 211 

Himtington, A. M., 78 

Hussakof, Louis, 78 

Indians, American, 163-165; Arawak, 295-303; 
Beaver, 256; Slavey, 257, 258 

Jamaica, Kitchen Middens of, 295-303 
Jesup, M. K., 218-220 
Jesup, Mrs. M. K., 219-220 
Johnson, D. W., 47 

Kaisen, P. C, 214 

Keith, M. C, 310 

Kingfishers, Review of the Classification of, 80 

Kitchen Middens of Jamaica, 295-303 

Knight, C. R., 43, 80, 82-98 

Knight exhibit, 43 

Lang, Herbert, 118, 269 

Lanier, Charles, 269 

Laysan Island group, 168 

Lectures, 44, 47, 48 

Lobster, 48 

Loeb, Morris, 272 

LoNOLET, G. C. Kitchen Middens of Jamaica, 

295-303 
Longley, G. C, 215 
I^wie, R. H., 46, 47, 119, 269 
Lucas, F. A., American Beaver, 123-135; The 

Story of Museum Groups, 2-15, 50-65 
Lucas, F. A., 48 

Lutz, F. E. Collecting in Cuba, 99-106 
Lutz, F. E., 312 

MacCubdy, G. G. Maya Art and its Develop- 
ment, 107-111; PalsBollthlc Art as Repre- 
sented in the Collections of the American 
Museum, 225-237 

Mackenzie, Alexander, 259 

MacMUlan, D. B., 78, 209-210, 212 

Magee, Mrs. John, 215 

Mason collection, 157-162 

Maya Art. 16-31, 107-111 



Mead, C. W , Ancient Pottery from Nasca, Peru, 

207-208 
Members, 43, 77, 118, 160, 213, 270, 311 
Merriam, J. C, 46 
Miller, L. E., 213, 269 

Miller, W. DeW. Importation of Birds, 69-70 
Miller, W. DeW., 80 
Miner, R. W., 216, 312 
Monaco, Prince, of, 173 
Moose, Alaskan, 44, 45 
Morgan, J. P., 77, 119, 269 
Morgan, Mrs. J. P., 43 
Morgan, T. H., 44 
Murphy, R. C, 216 
Miiseum Attendance, 44 
Museum groups, Story of, 2-15, 50-65 
Museum and the American People, 219-220 
Museum Notes, 43-48, 77-80, 118-120, 166-168, 

213-216, 269-272, 310-312 
Museums. American Association of, 166 
Mutchler, A. J., 312 

Nasca pottery, 119, 207-208 
New York Zoological Society, 78 
Nichols, J. T., 216, 312 

Oetteklng, Bruno, 270 

Oettinger, P. J., 80, 168 

One Road, Amos, 119 

OsBORN, H. F. The Broom Fossil Reptile Collec- 
tion, 136-138; The Museum and the Ameri- 
can People, 219-220 

Osborn, H. F., 43, 46, 118, 166, 213, 270, 310, 311 

PalBBolithlc Art, 225-237 

Panama-Pacific Exposition, 311 

Pasteur, Louis, 215 

Peace River, Along, 253-260 

Piltdown man, 43, 188-200 

Poly mastodon, 44 

Porto Rico, Survey of, 80, 216, 312 

Pottery, 168; Nasca, 119, 207-208 

Proctor, A. P., 166 

Rainey, P. J., 119, 216 

Rasmussen, Knud, 270 

Reeds, C. A., 46, 216, 272, 311 

Resolutions to Professor Bickmore, 144 

Richardson, W. B., 119 

Rockefeller, William, 77 

Rondon, Colonel, 171 

Roosevelt South American Expedition, 78, 145- 

146, 213, 214 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 171, 213, 214; Patron of 

the American Museum's Field Work in South 

America, 145-146 

Sachs, P. J., 43 

Schrammen collection, 272 

Shackleton, Ernest, 271 

Sharpe, R. B., 5 

Shell collection, 267-268 

Sherwood, G. H., 269 

Shiras, George, 3d, 78 

Skinner, Alanbon. The Algonkin and the 
Thunderblrd, 71-72; Charles S. Mason col- 
lection, 157-162 

Skinner. Alanson, 46, 47, 119, 272 



INDEX OF VOLUME XIV 



315 



SomalUand, 112-117 

Spinden, H. J. A Chapter of Ancient American 

History, 16-31 
Spinden, H. J., 46, 80, 271 
Stefansson, V., 78, 80, 261-266, 270, 271 
Stone Age, Men of the Old, 118, 310, 311 
Storage rooms, 73-75 
Store, Museum, 310 

Thomas, A. E., 272 
Thomson, Albert, 213, 269 
Tower, R. W., 167 
Trevor, J. B., 269 
True, F. W., 271 
Trustees, 77, 166, 213 

Vaughan, a. L., The Blind in the American Mu- 
seum, 39-42; Teaching in the American 
Museum, 76-77 



Verreaux, Jules, 9 
Visitors' room, 78, 79 

Warburg, Felix, 269 

Watson, F. E., 272, 312 

Whale collection, 274-294 

Whales, 120, 167, 168 

Williams, J. L., 43, 311 

Wilson, G. L., 311 

WiNANS, Walter, Hunt in a Big Game Reserva- 
tion, 66-68 

Winslow, C.-E. A., 48, 119, 168, 271 

Wireless, 47 

W18SLEB, Clark, Bandolier — Pioneer Student 
of Ancient American Races, 147-148 

Wissler, Clark, 43, 44, 270, 311 

Worcester, D. C, 48 

Younghusband, F. E., 166, 215 



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