The Peabody Museum.

Within the last month the Peabody Museum has been unusually fortunate in receiving several valuable additions to its archaeological collections.

The largest of these gifts is from Mr. George W. Hammond, of Boston, and comprises the whole of his private collection obtained from all parts of the world only after many years of travel. Mr. Hammond has given this collection to the Museum with the understanding that the Museum should take from it all specimens which will be of importance in adding to its present collections, while those which are duplicates should be sent to Bowdoin College. The collection is most valuable because of the great numbers of stone implements from the European countries-Sweden, Denmark, England and Savoy. There is also an interesting collection of cliff-dwellers remains from Colorado, and countless specimens from various parts of the United States.

By far the most valuable gift that the Museum has received for some time is the famous Calaveras skull, which was found a number of years ago in the auriferous gravel beds of California, and which had been in the possession of the late Prof. J. D. Whitney up to the time of his death. This skull, together with the manuscript and printed matter relating to it, is of paramount importance in connection with the antiquity of man on the Pacific Coast of America. For the present it has been placed in a private cabinet in Professor Putnam's office at the Museum.

From the trustees of the Mary Hemenway estate, has been received an original ancient Mexican manuscript on native agave paper, date 1531. It is especially valuable as being one of but three extant. The drawings and text are the work of the native interpeter or scribe, officially employed by the Spaniards to draw up grants of land, deeds of transfer, etc. The text is in Nahuat or Mexican language, written in Spanish characters, and refers to the appointment of an alcalde to a certain village and the determination of its boundaries.

From careful inspection of the specimens at the Museum, Mr. C. C. Willoughby has recently published "An Analysis of the Decorations upon Pottery from the Mississippi Valley." It has long been supposed by many people that pottery decorations had no significance at all, but were merely the haphazard touches of the decorator. Mr. Willoughby, however, has made a scientific investigation of the matter, and has found that decorative motives, though not entirely, were mostly of symbolic origin, and were evidently closely associated with the religious beliefs and ceremonies of the people. His work, though not very extensive, is of the greatest importance to one interested in the archaeology of this region.