Page:Anthropology.djvu/156

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abstracts from anthropological correspondence.


Numerous correspondents of the Institution, in writing upon various matters, frequently convey valuable information. It is the design of this chapter to put on record those statements of correspondents respecting archeology that are not sufficiently long to form a separate article.

Barkley, W. F., writes that about 15 miles from Mount Pleasant, Pa., are the remains of a burying ground, in which the dead are interred beneath piles of stone.

Carruthers, Arthur, writes that in the western part of Amherst Township, Lorain County, Ohio, on the farms of Joseph Rice, David Shevarts, and others, are sandstone rocks rising about 1 foot above the ground and from 6 to 50 feet across the top. They belong to the Waverly sandstone. The impressions of Indian moccasins, bears' tracks, turkey tracks, and those of small birds are very plentiful. They do not all run in the same direction, but cross and recross one another.

Coues, Elliott, mentions a cliff-house on Beaver Creek at its junction with the Rio Verde, 40 miles from Fort Whipple, Ariz.

Ferry, C. M., of Oneida, New York, mentions the opening of a trench of buried Indians. Part of the bodies were in wooden coffins, plainly indicating recent burial. Some of the dead had been wrapped in blankets, and a child's moccasin was ornamented with glass beads. Buttons and bricks also add their testimony to the fact that the cemetery is not ancient.

Flint, Earl. Rock inscriptions extend all along the summits of the Cordilleras, from Bolivia to Mexico. They are similar in character. At Telembela, in Ecuador, is a sacrificial stone, similar to that in Mexico. A sculpture of a chief with a scepter in each hand, surmounted by a condor, and standing on the prostrate form of a supplicant, was found in Peru. This resembles very much the figure in the Palenque stone, but it is coarser. At Samiapata, near the top of the declivity, sculptured in relief, is a figure of a tiger. A little higher up is a similar one, more massive, from which a double series of thombs lead from the sculpture to a kind of throne, supported on four feet of a bird of prey, surrounded by a circular line of seats. These all join to form the body of the cross. The top is in shape a species of platform, on which are chiseled hemispheric holes, one yard in diameter, communicating with one another by

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