232 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [1895 



The shell of which the gorgets are made is the Busycon per- 

 versum, the central spine of the same shell is often found in 

 the (ists, smoothed into large pins for use and ornament. 



The great number of objects made from this sea shell obvi- 

 ously points to long-continued trade with seaboard tribes, as do 

 the small sea shells which were pierced and used as beads. Very- 

 few trader's beads are found in this section (and they only with 

 remains of later Indians), but quantities of native manufac- 

 ture — almost anything that could be put on a string — appears 

 to have been used for the purpose; many were made of bones 

 long and short, slender and thick, contrasting in workmanship 

 with the polished bead produced, by patient working, from the 

 valve of the unio or river mussel. The unio lending its natural 

 shape for spoons, knives, scrapers, etc. 



Examinations of the Stone Grave localities have brought to 

 light many objects formed of clay and hardened by fire; a great 

 deal of this pottery is uninjured by its long exposure to damp, 

 the stone sides and top of the cist preserving it from the pres- 

 sure which has frequently destroyed the pottery of the Colum- 

 bian Indians when buried with them. 



In the pottery of the Stone Grave Indians artistic thought is 

 largely an element in its construction, as shown in shapes of 

 vessels and their ornamentation; the symmetry and grace of some 

 specimens are remarkable and imitation of animal forms well 

 carried out. The first promptings of art in copying natural 

 forms would not have been apt to develop in a time of savage 

 A"arfare ; hence it is reasonable to suppose that such vessels were 

 placed in the cists before the continued conflict recorded through- 

 out the period of our historic knowledge of this region. The 

 following specimens described in this paper may be considered 

 a typical find in pottery for the student of these burial sites; 

 they were exhumed about a year ago from cists in a garden 

 at South Nashville. The specimens of the rock of which 

 the cists were composed may be identified as the Trenton lime- 

 stone by the fossils it contains, this being the rock generally 

 used for the purpose. The ground all around had been exam- 



