ABORIGINAL POTTERY 



579 



opportunity of visiting the springs. I then found the plateau between 

 them cleared and under cultivation ; the water had dried from the 

 sink ; a crop of corn was growing on its bottom ; the plough had ovei-- 

 turned and broken the mould, but in doing so had exposed portions of 

 others of the same character. They appeared to have been small 

 mounds built of stone, and covered with a tenacious yellow clay, which, 

 by sun-drying, had become as hard as common salmon-brick. 



From the position of the moulds on the rim of the sink, I inclined 

 to the opinion that it was mainly an artificial reservoir for water, and 

 the centre of a great pottery-manufactory ; the material used being 

 the siliceous fire-clays and shales of the coal-measures, which are found 

 in abundance, decomposed and ready for use, in ravines within reason- 

 able distance of the locality, together with fresh-water shells from the 

 reefs and ripples of the Saline and Wabash Rivers, using bivalves and 

 univalves indiscriminately. 



The plough had played sad havoc with the pieces of pottery I ex- 

 pected to secure. At first, pieces ten or twelve inches across were 

 easily obtained ; now one as large as the hand is a treasure : this 

 breaking up made it very difficult to secure the evidence I was look- 

 ing for. I made many thorough searches before finding any specimens 

 of well-marked unions of the bandages, or establishing conclusively 

 that in no case were the bottoms of the large vessels marked, as they 

 would have been if formed in baskets. 



Fig. 3. 



A person familiar with the work of the early settlers informs me 

 that, in grading for foundations of their salt-furnaces, several of tlie 

 large pans, almost perfect, were unearthed and destroyed by the black 

 laborers. He paid no attention to the markings, only observing that 

 their bottoms were perfectly plain, and described them as " basins, as 

 large around as the hind-wheel of his wagon, with flattish bottoms." 



