452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



holes being used to regulate the size of the thread. But all doubt 

 vanishes when it is found that some " ash-pits," in which most of the 

 relics have been found, contain pieces of coarse matting. This has 

 been carbonized, so that it can not now be ascertained of what mate- 

 rial it was made. Enough, however, remains to show that the fibers 

 running one way are secured by twisted cords running across, and 

 woven in and out between and around them. 



As is very well known, the copper-mines of Lake Superior were 

 extensively worked at an early day, and articles made of the copper 

 are found all through the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. 

 The present cemetery is no exception, for fragments of copper are 

 quite common. The pieces are mostly small, however, and do not 

 seem to have been in very general use. In all probability the metal 

 was highly prized, and used simply for personal adornment. The 

 most of the pieces are simply coiled or rolled, and Fig. 15 represents 



Fig. 15. 



common shapes. These two pieces still have the remains of a leather 

 thong in them, showing that they had been used like beads. Another 

 piece is a sort of copper bell, made of a single piece of metal, with a 

 hole in the side, a handle, and a small piece of copper inside, which 

 rattles when the bell is shaken. Still another large piece is like a 

 cross with two arms, the use or purpose of it being entirely unknown. 

 Objects like it have occasionally been found elsewhere. Squier and 

 Davis* have figured a similar piece, but of silver, which they refer to 

 the French Jesuits ; and Professor Putnam figures another, f which 

 differs in having only one arm. He considers it an ornament, " made 

 in its present form simply because it is an easy design to execute, and 

 one of natural conception." We must beg leave to differ from him 

 in this latter point, for, if the design is one of natural conception, why 

 do we make a point when it is found ? Why are the forms like it not 

 more numerous, and why does not the ornamented pottery have in- 

 numerable examples of it in the ornamentation ? 



Beads made of pieces of fresh-water and marine shells are found 

 among the other remains. Sometimes pieces are cut from the mussel- 

 shell, rubbed round, and then a hole bored. Sometimes specimens of 

 Melania or Pahidinahad holes bored near the aperture, and were then 

 used as beads. The beads made of marine shells show that some sys- 

 tem of barter or commerce existed with the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf. 



* "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," p. 208. 



f " Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of Archseology and Ethnology," 

 p. 307. 



