DRILLING IX STONE WITHOUT METAL. 



397 



the blade by ligatures. The depressions of the axe above and below the shaft- 

 hole (oliservable in the side view) seem to have been destined for the reception 

 of the fastening. 



Yet, the manufactures of stone ^vhieh evince the greatest skill of the former 

 inhabitants of North America are by no means their pierced axes, but those 

 remarkable pi]ies, often made of the hardest stones, that have been found in the 

 so-called sacriHcial mounds of the western States, but more especially in Ohio. 

 These " mound i)ipes " usually represent bowl and tube in one piece, thus dillering 

 from the modern Indian ])ii)e, which consists of a bowl and a long wooden stem, 

 and bears a distant resemblance to the chihouc of the Tiu-ks. A great number 

 of pipes of the above-mentioned antique shape were disentombed by JNlessrs. 

 Squier and Davis during their survey of the ancient earth-works in the Missis- 

 sippi valley, and are described and figured in their work already quoted by me, 

 which forms the first volume of '' Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge."* 

 The accompanying cut (Fig. 8) presents the outline of the mound-pipe in its 



simple or primitive form. 

 J^iq. S. The drawing is about half 



the size of the original, 



which was exhumed with 



many similar articles from 



@ \ a mound near Chillicothe, 



Ohio, and belonged form- 

 erly to the collection of Dr. 

 Davis. It will be seen that 

 the bowl rises from the mid- 

 dle of a flat and somewhat 

 curved base, one side of 

 which communicates by 

 beans of a naiTow perforation, one-sixth of an inch (about four millimeters) in 

 liameter, with the hollow of the bowl, and represents the tube, or rather the 

 mouth-})iece of the pipe, while the other unperforated end forms the handle by which 

 the smoker held the implement and approached it to his mouth. Bowl and base arc 

 ornamented with small cu})-shaped holes. This pipe consists of hard porphyry, and 

 is wrought from a single piece, like all others of similar character. I have 

 already stated that it may be considered as the simple or typical form of this 

 class of inq)lements. In the more elaborate specimens the bowl is formed in 

 some instances in imitation of the human head, but generally of the body of an 

 animal ; and in tlie latter cases the peculiar characteristics of the species which 

 have served as models, comprising mammals, birds, and amphibia, are frequently 

 expressed with surprising lidelity; a modern artist, indeed, notwithstanding his 

 far superior instruments, would find no little difficulty in reproducing the more 

 finished of these objects, especially when carving them from porphyry, which 

 was the kind of stone chiefly cm})loyed by the manufacturers. It must be borne 

 in mind that the real use of rnetal was unknown to the ancient populations of 

 North America. Inq)lemeuts and ornanrents of copj)er, it is true, have been'dis- 

 covered, to a limited extent, in the mounds of the western States, and els(!where, 

 but the copper thus employed has not been obtained V)V the reduction from its 

 ores; on the contrary, it is evident that the aborigines fashioned tlK)se articles 

 from pieces of native copper, which \\\vy brought into the required shape by the 

 sinq)le j>rocess of luunmering. They ol)tained the copper from the southern shore 

 of Lake Superior, where extensive traces of their ruile mining operations are still 



* The orif^iuals are now in the lilackrnore Mii&eum, at Salisbury, England, an institution 

 of recent oii<^in, to which Dr. Davis sold his excellent coileciiou of Indiuti relics, mostly 

 obtained during the survey to wliich I havi' alluded. Ht-loro the sale took place, I had con- 

 stantly occasion tosee the collection, and thus became familiar with the character of the speci- 

 mtus. 



