Revieivs, Booh Xotices, etc. 381 



of clay, lime, sand, and fragments of stone ; for I am satisfied that this 

 art was possessed by a race of people Avho inhabited this continent at 

 a period so remote that neither tradition nor history can furnish any 

 account of them. They belonged to the Neolithic or polished stone 

 age. They lived in towns, and built mounds for sepulture and worship, 

 and protected their homes by surrounding them with walls of earth 

 and stone. In some of these mounds, specimens of various kinds of 

 pottery, in a perfect state of preservation, have, from time to time, 

 been found, and fragments are so common that every student of 

 archfBology can have a bountiful supply. Some of these fragments 

 indicate vessels of very great size. At the Saline springs of Gallatin 

 county, Illinois, I picked up fragments that indicated, by their curva- 

 ture, vessels five to six feet in diameter, and it is probable that they 

 are fragments of artificial stone pans, used to hold brine that was 

 raanufactui'ed into salt by solar evaporation. 



" Xow, all the pottery belonging to the Mound-Builders' age, which 

 I have seen, is composed of alluvial clay and sand, or a mixture of the 

 former with pulverized fresh water shells. A paste made of such a 

 mixture possesses in a high degree the properties of hydraulic Puzzuo- 

 lava and Portland cement, so that vessels formed of it hardened with- 

 out being burnt, as is customary with modern pottery. The. frag- 

 ments of shells served the purpose of gravel or fragments of stone, ''s 

 at present used in connection with hydraulic lime in the manufacture 

 of artificial stone. 



" Instead of softening in water, as they would if made of clay 

 alone, the shells give to the composition hydraulic properties, and 

 vessels made of it harden on exposure to air and moisture. When 

 filled with water and meat, pots made of this material could be placed 

 over the fire and heated without fear of breaking them. These ancient 

 artizans must have been aware of the advantage derived from a thin 

 body to resist breakage from expansion and contraction from the heat 

 of the fire. I have a beautiful vessel, from the ' Bone Bank,' made of 

 artificial stone, which has ears, and is otherwise formed like an old 

 fashioned cast-iron dinner-pot. It is five inches across the mouth, and 

 seven inches in diameter at the bulge, five inches deep, and only one 

 eighth of an inch thick. The bottom is smoked black, which goes to 

 show that it was suspended over the fire for cooking purposes. 



