Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/72

62 The American department of this vast collection is exceedingly valuable. There is but little from the Indians of the United States; from ancient Mexico and Peru, from the modern South American tribes, and from the Northwest coast the representation is magnificent. The culture of Eskimos, of Tlingits, Haidas, and Bilgulas are fully shown. Some very choice Mexican antiquities collected by Humboldt are here. Here, too, are three of the exceedingly rare and interesting mosaics from Mexico made by overlaying forms of wood with bits of turquoise, obsidian, and shell. Perhaps a score such are known in European museums: seven are at London, three at Berlin, two at Copenhagen, and five at Rome. They are among the most curious and interesting Aztec objects. There are fine series of pottery from Mexico and Yucatan. The collection of Peruvian pottery is wonderfully complete, and is no doubt the finest on public display in the world. Reiss and StubePs great collections, upon which their famous work, The Necropolis of Ancon, is based, are here, and include the finest general series of Peruvian antiquities on exhibition especially rich in wrapped mummies, fine cloths, and household goods. As for modern ethnography, there are series of objects from almost every tribe from the Caribbean Sea to Cape Horn. All this wealth of materials is under the care of Dr. Edward Seler, whose special work upon Mexican subjects has made him known to Americanists.

The men at Berlin are all hard workers. Dr. F. von Luschan, curator of the African department, exemplifies this. Himself a specialist in biblical archaeology, and frequently in the field overseeing excavation, he allows no opjwrtunity to pass unimproved for gathering anthropological material of every kind. In addition to his regular work he has, while in the field, taken photographs and anthropological measurements of more than three thousand persons, some of them among barbarous and little-known tribes a work which alone would not represent an idle life.

We can refer to but two more of the German workers Dr. Richard Andree and Dr. E. Grosse. Richard Andree, of Heidelberg, has the heartiest admiration for our American ethnographers and their work, and it is certain that they reciprocate. His writings are always clear and direct. His latest work perhaps is his Ethnographische Parallelen—a good example of his style and ability. As editor of the geographic journal Globus, Dr. Andree is known the world around. At the old University of Freiburg, in the most picturesque part of the Rhine mountain country, is in progress one of the most hopeful works in anthropology in Europe. Dr. E. Grosse is there developing a museum and a department of anthropology. No effort is made to collect a great mass of material, but carefully selected specimens are arranged