Peale.] 244 t^^^- 



or filaments of other materials, were passed in order to suspend the 

 vessels. Several fragments in my collection are thus perforated. 



In the more carefully worked articles, these projections are neatly 

 and symmetrically formed, as shown by the smaller fragment, which is 

 one of these projections. It appears to be evident that generally 

 these vessels were left rough from the stone tools with which they 

 were made, but in some instances they were smoothed to an extent 

 nearly meriting the term polished, of which the fragment under con- 

 sideration is an example. 



The larger fragment also exhibits the above noticed projection, and 

 the curved, oval form, alluded to in a preceding part of this com- 

 munication, and was made of a magnesian rock, somewhat resembling 

 steatite; through it is disseminated a considerable amount of sul- 

 phuret of iron. 



It is probable that the large vase was used not alone as a cooking 

 vessel, but served a double purpose by the aid of a pestle, for crush- 

 ing or pulverizing food, a conclusion justified by the smooth or worn 

 appearance of the bottom of the cavity, and still further by the tra- 

 dition, that the pestle herewith exhibited was found within the vase. 



This vessel was found on the farm of Mr. Robert H. Donaldson, 

 near the Little Falls of the Potomac in Virginia, in whose possession 

 it has remained for many years, serving the purpose of a receptacle 

 for the food of his poultry, not in this instance to be considered a 

 degradation, as it has saved it from destruction, the usual fiite of such 

 articles when not protected by the intelligence or better feeling of 

 those in whose hands they remain after the Race which made them 

 has departed. For this specimen we are indebted to the laudable 

 good sense of the above-named gentleman. 



A discussion of the subject ensued in which Dr. Le Conte 

 expressed his opinion that the mere presence of metal was 

 non-essential where the metal was used as a natural product 

 precisely as stone had been used, and without any metallurgi- 

 cal skill ; as in the case of the iron arrow heads now used, 

 indiscriminately with obsidian arrow^ heads by the savages of 

 California, the iron being merely fragments of tire iron found 

 abandoned by the emigrants upon the plains ; or as in the 

 ease of the meteoric iron used by the Esquimaux. 



The Committee of Finance reported that the claim of the 

 Society for certain coal lands in Northumberland County has 

 been compromised and settled. One thousand dollars (less 



