The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 288

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

sequent benefit to the study of the humanities is incalculable.
Pomfret's closing words in this book (p. 235) are an excellent
summation of this remarkable achievement: "In large, the Hunting=
ton Library and Art Gallery, with the cooperation of a unified and
responsible board, a salutary administration, and a dedicated staff,
has striven within its compass to extend the bounds of humanistic
learning and to enrich human culture."
The book, little more than a historical catalog of the institution's
development, will be of interest primarily to those who know and
appreciate Huntington Library and secondarily to those who are
engaged in the collecting of rare books, manuscripts, and art works.
And even for these, the lack of an adequate index seriously impairs
the work's usefulness.
Texas Tech University SEYMOUR V. CONNOR
Treasure Tempest in Texas. By Jerry Sadler. (Austin: privately pub-
lished, 1969. Pp. 18. Illustrations.)
History Under the Sea. By Mendel Peterson. (Washington: Smith-
sonian Institution Press. Reprint, 1969. Pp. xv + 2o8. Illustra-
tions, Bibliography, appendix. $5.52.)
These two publications have to do with recovery of treasure from
sunken ships. Sadler's pamphlet is principally a defence for spec-
tacularly unorthodox handling of Padre Island finds. More ques-
tions are left unanswered than are answered; perhaps the suit be-
tween Texas Land Commissioner Sadler and Platoro Ltd., Inc. will
clarify some.
The subtitle of Peterson's book, A Manual for Underwater Ex-
ploration, is more apt than the title. There are chapters on search
techniques, condition and survey of underwater sites, recovery, pres-
ervation, and identification of materials. Curiously, there is no
index. This book is intended to help the professional or the serious
amateur, and that serious amateur had better be plenty rich, have
a lot of time, and have a lot of friends. Peterson does not mention
the unprofessional professional or the casual amateur, but surely
these two groups must be far greater menaces than erosion of glass,
rotting of wood, or oxidation of metals. Tomb robbers of the pyra-
mids and arrowhead hunters who ravish Indian mounds have their
counterparts under the water, and, as Sadler's story shows, mere

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