PROCEEDINGS.

SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 25, 1883, AT THE HALL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, BOSTON.

THE President, Hon. STEPHEN SALISBURY, LL.D., in the chair.

The record of the last meeting was read and approved.

The following members were present (the names being arranged in order of seniority of membership): George E. Ellis, Edward E. Hale, Charles Deane, Dwight Foster, George F. Hoar, Edward Jarvis, John R. Bartlett, Andrew P. Peabody, George Chandler, Thomas C. Amory, Nathaniel Paine, Stephen Salisbury, Jr., P. Emory Aldrich, Samuel A. Green, Elijah B. Stoddard, George S. Paine, Edward L. Davis, William A. Smith, James F. Hunnewell, Egbert C. Smyth, John D. Washburn, Robert C. Waterston, George H. Preble, Thomas W. Higginson, Edward H. Hall, Albert H. Hoyt, William R. Huntington, Edward G. Porter, Reuben A. Guild, Charles C. Smith, Hamilton B. Staples, Edmund M. Barton, Charles Devens, Thomas L. Nelson, Lucius R. Paige, Charles A. Chase, Samuel S. Green, Justin Winsor, Henry W. Haynes, Edward I. Thomas, Horatio Rogers, Frederick W. Putnam, Solomon Lincoln, Andrew McF. Davis.

JOHN D. WASHBURN read the report of the Council.

Mr. EDMUND M. BARTON, Librarian, and NATHANIEL PAINE, Esq., Treasurer, read their semi-annual reports.

On motion of Rev. GEORGE E. ELLIS, D.D.. these reports were accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication. Referring to that portion of the Council's report which spoke of the deficiencies in the various departments of the Library, Dr. ELLIS commented briefly on the tendency of libraries at the present day, through the very fact of their multitude, to become fragmentary and incomplete in character. Without making a motion to that effect, he expressed the hope that the author of that report would consider the subject of a system of exchange which should recognize the specialties of each library, to the end that in each of the great libraries some one or more departments should be substantially complete.

Rev. LUCIUS R. PAIGE, D.D., seconding the motion for the acceptance of the report of the Council, referred briefly to his personal associations with Rev. GEORGE ALLEN.

The Recording Secretary communicated from the Council a draft from the record of that body, relating to its action . on the occasion of the deaths, within twenty-four hours of each other, of Rev. GEORGE ALLEN and Hon. ISAAC DAVIS, and the paper was referred to the Committee of Publication.*

The Recording Secretary communicated from the Council their recommendation of Rev. CYRUS HAMLIN, D.D., of Middlebury, Vermont, as a candidate for membership, and he was, by ballot, unanimously elected.

Mr. SAMUEL S. GREEN presented a paper called "Gleanings from the Sources of History of the Second Parish of Worcester."

Rev. EDWARD E. HALE, D.D., moved that the thanks of the Society be presented to Mr. GREEN and the paper referred to the Committee of Publication, which motion prevailed. Dr. HALE also said a few words in reference to the third article of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, which,

*The remarks of the President, and the Resolutions of the Council will be found following the Report of the Council.

he took occasion to state (correcting a past error in another place), was drawn by the Rev. NOAH ALDEN, a Baptist minister of Bellingham.

ANDREW MCF. DAVIS, Esq., read a paper on the travels of an Indian, Moncacht-Apé, reviewing a recent article in the Revue d'Anthropologie. The thanks of the Society

were voted to Mr. DAVIS for the paper, which was referred to the Committee of Publication, on motion of JUSTIN WINSOR, Esq.

Mr. FREDERICK W. PUTNAM made a short communication on the use of metals by the mound builders. He showed by specimens which he exhibited that the mound builders of the Ohio valley made use of native copper, native silver, native gold, and native or meteoric iron, all of which were formed into ornaments simply by hammering. Ornaments made of all these metals, obtained from altar-mounds in the Little Miami Valley, Ohio, were exhibited. Mr. PUTNAM dwelt on the interest attached to the discovery of masses of meteoric iron and of ornaments made from it. This was the first time that iron had been found in the mounds, and it was of importance to note that in this instance it was iron of meteoric origin, which had been worked in the same way as other native metals, simply by hammering. The finding of a small quantity of native gold, which had been hammered into a thin sheet and used to cover one of the copper ornaments, was of particular interest, as it was the first instance of the kind, and the very small amount of gold found showed that its use was exceptional. These specimens will be described and figured in the memoir now being prepared by Mr. PUTNAM and Dr. METZ to be published by the Peabody Museum.

Mr. PUTNAM also read a paper, entitled Iron from the Ohio Mounds; a review of the statements and misconceptions of two writers of over sixty years ago. On motion of Prof. HENRY W. HAYNES, the paper was referred to the Committee of Publication, with the thanks of the Society.

Prof. HAYNES presented a brief paper entitled "Notes upon ancient soap-stone quarries worked for the manufacture of cooking utensils." The thanks of the Society were presented to Prof. HAYNES on motion of the Recording Secretary, and the paper was referred to the Committee of Publication.

The meeting was then dissolved.

JOHN D. WASHBURN,

Recording Secretary.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL,

Ar a special meeting of the Council, held at the Society's Hall on the 30th day of March, 1883, a committee was appointed, in accordance with long established usage under the by-laws of the Society, to examine the Library and prepare the report of the Council.

The examination of the Library by this committee has usually been somewhat perfunctory in its character. The reports and statements of the Librarian as to the additions to the Library and its present condition have usually been received by the committee and a summary of them embodied in the Council's report. In April, 1873, however, the committee through its chairman, our faithful Treasurer, reported that they had made an actual physical examination of the library, that they had actually counted all the books in the upper hall, ante-rooms and lower hall, and also many of the unbound pamphlets; that the others had been estimated with sufficient care to enable the committee to report the whole number of volumes in the Library with substantial accuracy. This number was, as the result of the examination, reported to be something more than fifty-three thousand. It has increased steadily ever since, and the increase for each six months has been reported by the Librarian at the stated meetings of the Society. The present number, by computation based on these semi-annual reports, may, be safely stated at about eighty thousand.

Mr. Paine, in that methodical and statistical report, called attention to the various classes of collections in the library;