carving. Yet the exceedingly close texture of ivory enables it to
successfully resist the destroying influences of time for very long
periods--very long indeed as compared with certain articles which
commonly reward the search of the mound explorer.

Among the articles of a perishable nature that have been exhumed from
the mounds are large numbers of shell ornaments, which are by no means
very durable, as well as the perforated teeth of various animals;
sections of deers' horns have also been found, as well as ornaments made
of the claws of animals, a still more perishable material. The list also
includes the bones of the muskrat and turtle, as of other animals, not
only in their natural shape, but carved into the form of implements of
small size, as awls, etc. Human bones, too, in abundance, have been
exhumed in a sufficiently well preserved state to afford a basis for
various theories and speculations.

But of the mastodon, with which these dead Mound-Builders are supposed
to have been acquainted, not a palpable trace remains. The tale of its
existence is told by a single mound in Wisconsin, which the most ardent
supporter of the mastodon theory must acknowledge to be far from a
facsimile, and two carvings and an inscribed tablet, the three latter
the finds of a single explorer.

Bearing in mind the many attempts at archæological frauds that recent
years have brought to light, archæologists have a right to demand that
objects which afford a basis for such important deductions as the coeval
life of the Mound-Builder and the mastodon, should be above the
slightest suspicion not only in respect to their resemblances, but as
regards the circumstances of discovery. If they are not above suspicion,
the science of archæology can better afford to wait for further and more