at most important
product in primitive industries, ivory, would naturally be the one
peculiarity of all others which the ancient artist would have relied
upon to fix the identity of the animal. It is also remarkable that in
neither of these pipes is the tail indicated, although a glance at the
other sculptures will show that in the full-length figures this member
is invariably shown. In respect to these omissions, the pipes from Iowa
are strikingly suggestive of the Elephant Mound of Wisconsin, with the
peculiarities of which the sculptor, whether ancient or modern, might
almost be supposed to have been acquainted. It certainly must be looked
upon as a curious coincidence that carvings found at a point so remote
from the Elephant Mound, and presumably the work of other hands, should
so closely copy the imperfections of that mound.

In considering the evidence afforded by these pipes of a knowledge of
the mastodon on the part of the Mound-Builders, it should be borne in
mind that their authenticity as specimens of the Mound-Builders' art has
been called seriously in question. Possibly the fact that the same
person was instrumental in bringing to light both the pipes has had
largely to do with the suspicion, especially when it was remembered that
although explorers have been remarkably active in the same region, it
has fallen to the good fortune of no one else to find anything conveying
the most distant suggestion of the mastodon. As the manner of discovery
of such relics always forms an important part of their history, the
following account of the pipes as communicated to Mr. Barber by Mr.
W. H. Pratt, president of the Davenport Academy (American Naturalist for
April, 1882, pp. 275, 276), is here subjoined:

The first elephant pipe, which we obtained (Fig. 17) a little more
than a year ago, was found some six years before by an illiterate
German farmer named Peter Mare, while planting corn on a farm in
the mound region, Louisa County, Iowa. He did not care whether it
was elephant or kangaroo; to him it was a curious 'Indian stone,'
and nothing more, and he kept it and smoked it. In 1878 he removed
to Kansas, and when he left he gave the pipe to his brother-in-law,
a farm laborer, who also smoked it. Mr. Gass happened to hear of
it, as he is always inquiring about such things, hunted up the man
and borrowed the pipe to take photographs and casts from it. He
could not