buy it. The man said his brother-in-law gave it to him
and as it was a curious thing--he wanted to keep it. We were,
however, unfortunate, or fortunate, enough to break it; that
spoiled it for him and that was his chance to make some money out
of it. He could have claimed any amount, and we would, as in duty
bound, have raised it for him, but he was satisfied with three or
four dollars. During the first week in April, this month, Rev. Ad.
Blumer, another German Lutheran minister, now of Genesee, Illinois,
having formerly resided in Louisa County, went down there in
company with Mr. Gass to open a few mounds, Mr. Blumer being well
acquainted there. They carefully explored ten of them, and found
nothing but ashes and decayed bones in any, except one. In that one
was a layer of red, hard-burned clay, about five feet across and
thirteen inches in thickness at the center, which rested upon a bed
of ashes one foot in depth in the middle, the ashes resting upon
the natural undisturbed clay. In the ashes, near the bottom of the
layer, they found a part of a broken carved stone pipe,
representing some bird; a very small beautifully formed copper
'axe,' and this last elephant pipe (Fig. 18). This pipe was first
discovered by Mr. Blumer, and by him, at our earnest solicitation,
turned over to the Academy.

It will be seen from the above that the same gentleman was instrumental
in bringing to light the two specimens constituting the present supply
of elephant pipes.

The remarkable archaeologic instinct which has guided the finder of these
pipes has led him to even more important discoveries. By the aid of his
divining rod he has succeeded in unearthing some of the most remarkable
inscribed tablets which have thus far rewarded the diligent search of
the mound explorer. It is not necessary to speak in detail of these
here, or of the various theories to which they have given rise and
support, including that of phonetic writing, further than to call
attention to the fact that by a curious coincidence one of the tablets
contains, among a number of familiar animals, figures which suggest in a
rude way the mastodon again, which animal indeed some archaeologists have
confidently asserted them to be. The resemblance they bear to that
animal is, however, by no means as close as exhibited by the pipe
carvings; they are therefore not reproduc