574 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but a slight examination showed me that these figures had been impressed and 

 not carved ; or, in other words, that a hasket of rushes or willmcs had Jirst teen 

 constructed, inside of tohich the clay was moulded and allowed to dry lefore 

 lurningy 



Then, in a foot-note, he continues : 



" Since this chapter was written, I have seen a paper of Mr. Charles Eau, of 

 New York, on the aboriginal pottery of this country, in which he refers to this 

 locality, and arrives at the same conclusion as myself. ... I had occasion 

 to examine a fragment of a vessel sent to Dr. Davis in 1859, by Mr. George 

 E. Sellers, who obtained it at the salt-springs, near the Saline Eiver. . . . 

 Several acres, Mr. Sellers states, are covered with broken vessels, and heaps of 

 clay and shells, which indicate that they were made on the spot. They present 

 the shape of semi-globular bowls with projecting rims, and measure from thirty 

 inches to four feet across the rim ; the thickness varies from a half to three- 

 quarters of an inch. 



" The earthenware has evidently ieen moulded in iaslets. It is solid and 

 heavy, and must have ieen tolerably well talced. The impressions on the outside 

 are very regular, and are really ornamental, proving that these aboriginal pot- 

 ters were also sMllful hasTcet-mahers. 



" Mr. Rau quotes from Hunter, as to the aboriginal mode of making pottery, 

 ' Another method practised is to coat the inner surf ace ofbasTcets, made of rushes 

 or irillows, with clay, to the required thickness, and, when dried, to burn them 

 as above described.' " 



My object in writing this article is to refute a theory that would 

 attribute to the rude, prehistoric people of the Stone age a skill in 

 manipulation that cannot now be a{)proached by the skilled artisan of 

 the present age ; that is, keeping in form and lining with heavy clay 

 fragile baskets of the large size of these old salt-kettles. 



About the time I sent the specimens to Dr. Davis referred to by 

 Mr. Rau, I also sent some to the Hon. Thomas Ewbank, and in my 

 letter accompanying I stated that I had discovered what at first I 

 took to be an entire kettle bottom-up ; but, on removing the earth that 

 covered it, it appeared to be a solid mass of sun-dried clay. From its 

 position among heaps of clay and shells, its hard, compact, discolored 

 I might say almost polished surface, I became satisfied it was a 

 mould on which the clay kettles had been formed, precisely as in loam- 

 moulding at the present day. 



Mr. Ewbank, in reply, said he thought I was mistaken ; that what 

 I took for a mould was most probably a concreted sediment that had 

 filled a kettle and been turned out ; that there was no evidence of the 

 aborigines of either North or South America having ever iised the 

 lathe, or formed their ware by striking; not even among the Peru- 

 vians, whom he considered far in advance as to forms and qiiality of 

 pottery- ware. They had moulded bottles or jugs on gourds, and open 

 vessels in baskets, which had been burned out or ofl^ in baking ; he 

 thought the specimens I sent him bore evident marks of reed baskets, 

 etc. 



