indeed is the resemblance sufficiently close to justify
calling it a veritable manatee. But with the aid of a little
imagination it may in a rude way suggest that animal, its earless head
and the flipper being the most striking, in fact the only, point of
likeness. Conceding that the figure as given by Short affords a rude
hint of the manatee, the question is how to account for its presence on
this the latest representation of the tablet which, according to Short,
Mr. Guest, its owner, pronounces "the first correct representations of
the stone." The cast of this tablet in the Smithsonian Institution
agrees more closely with Short's representation in respect to the
details mentioned than with that given in the "Ancient Monuments."
Nevertheless, if this cast be accepted as the faithful copy of the
original it has been supposed to be, the engraving in Short's volume is
subject to criticism. In the cast the outline of the figure, while
better defined than Squier and Davis represent it to be, is still very
indefinite, the outline not only being broken into, but being in places,
especially toward the head, indistinguishable from the surface of the
tablet into which it insensibly grades. In the view as found in Short
there is none of this irregularity and indefiniteness of outline, the
figure being perfect and standing out clearly as though just from the
sculptor's hand. As perhaps on the whole the nearest approach to the
form of a manatee appearing on any object claimed to have originated at
the hands of the Mound-Builders, and from the fact that artists have
interpreted its outline so differently, this figure, given by the
latest commentators on the Cincinnati tablet, is interesting, and has
seemed worthy of mention. As, however, the authenticity of the tablet
itself is not above suspicion, but, on the contrary, is believed by many
archaeologists to admit of grave doubts, the subject need not be pursued
further here.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Cincinnati Tablet. (Back.) From
Short.]

TOUCAN.

The _a priori_ probability that the toucan was known to the
Mound-Builders is, of course, much less than that the manatee was, since
no species of toucan occurs farther north than Southern Mexico. Its
distant habitat also militates against the idea that the Mound-Builders
could have acquired a knowledge of the bird from intercourse with
southern tribes, or that they received the supposed toucan pipes by way
of trade. Without discus