Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/634

616 ; a Hupa woman and girl in straw caps and dresses, with a papoose in its pretty basket cradle—these and other carefullychosen and usually well-executed groups give life, reality, and meaning to the objects in the cases around.

In a large alcove near by, occupied in great part by models of cliff-ruins, pueblos, and other monuments of the Southwest, are two interesting exhibits from Mr. Thomas Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institution, and Mr. William H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology. Mr. Wilson aims to present a synopsis of prehistoric archæology. The relics of palæolithic man from France, England, Egypt, and India are fairly represented. Next to them are placed some of the claimed paheoliths of New Jersey and Minnesota. Rude implements of forms akin to palneoliths but of uncertain or negative geological relations from all parts of the United States follow. A good neolithic series from the Swiss lake dwellings and the tumuli of Denmark is shown. Fine specimens illustrate work in polished stone in America. The bronze age in Europe, illustrated by objects from Switzerland, France, etc., is set alongside of objects of copper from American mounds and bronzes from Mexico. Some of the finer objects in jade, quartz, crystal, and obsidian from Mexico, and stone collars and mammiform stones from Porto Rico, complete the exhibit. Mr. Holmes's series is intended to illustrate Indian quarrying and mining. It is altogether a model display. The now famous quarry at Piney Branch, near Washington, is first illustrated. On this site the Indians formerly quarried pebbles, from the gravel deposits, for making into implements. These pebbles were worked up into "blanks"—oval Or leaf-shaped—from which, later and elsewhere, spear-points, arrowheads, and the like were made. In making these blanks many pebbles would be found to be worthless and would be rejected. These rejects and the blanks themselves closely resemble our American "palæoliths," and Mr. Holmes believes that some at least of our American palaæolith localities are old quarry sites, and that the palæoliths themselves are rejects. There can be little doubt that the showing of this idea has much to do with the making of this display. The exhibit, however, is so complete and excellently worked out that it has profound value apart from any theoretical interest. In regard to Piney Branch Mr. Holmes displays in table cases a series of pebbles, rejects of every stage, and blanks; along the wall above are specimens showing every stage from the pebble, through the blank, to the arrowhead or spear-])<jint. Above this series are framed diagrams, sections of the quarry, and maps, also a fine series of photographs. Clear, explanatory labels accompany all. In exactly the same way Mr. Holmes illustrates an interesting quarry of chert in Peoria Reservation, Indian Territory; the novaculite quarry of Arkansas; the