400 ETHNOLOGY. 



digging' an excavation about a foot deep, and three and a half or four 

 feet in diameter. Upon these were found a quantity of ashes and charred 

 bones, the remains of the feasts of men, and a number of stones from 

 three to six inches in diameter, bearing evidence of exposure to a high 

 degree of heat, and having probably been used for the purpose of boil- 

 ing water. The granitic sand entering into the composition of the pot- 

 tery may have been obtained from this source. Intermixed with the 

 soil at various depths I found fragments of pottery of different sizes and 

 patterns. The under surface or most dependent portion of each is in- 

 crusted with a white calcareous matter, deposited, no doubt, from the 

 leachings of the soil. The sherds were evidently from, some vessels 

 no larger than a small jar or goblet, and from others whose capacity 

 must have been four or five gallons. The color is either that of a cream 

 or Milwaukee brick color, such as clay destitute of ir;»n assumes when 

 burned, or a dim or slate color of various shades ; indeed, in some in- 

 stances it is almost blade. The recently fractured edges of some of the 

 pieces show a uniformity in color throughout the whole thickness 5 others 

 are of a cream-color one-third of the thickness upon either surface, with 

 a slate-colored streak running through the middle. One of these colors 

 may be seen on the inside of a sherd with its opposite on the outside, and 

 vice versa. I can detect no pigmentary matter upon either surface, and 

 am of opinion that whatever has been used, whether for ornament or 

 service, though probably the latter, has been imparted to the mass of 

 clay prior to molding or baking, and by use has disappeared from the 

 surface, the center retaining it; for while I find no black sherds whose 

 fractures show a cream-colored substance within, the converse is true. 

 The black sherds are the least brittle. The thickness of these shersd 

 varies from an eighth to three-eighths of an inch, according to the size 

 of the vessel, though few exceed one-fourth. Sand has been the only 

 substance used to give stiffness to the mass during the process of mold- 

 ing and prevent the ware from cracking while burning, and has probably 

 been obtained from disintegrated stones, some of which were found on 

 the hearths elsewhere spoken of. I have been able to find no whole ves- 

 sels, but from the fragments of the rims, sides, and bottoms, it is not 

 difficult to form a fair conception of their shape, which, for aboriginal 

 art, was wonderfully symmetrical, gradually widening from its neck or 

 more constricted portion of the vessel until it attains its greatest diame- 

 ter, at a distance of one-third of the height from the bottom, which 

 is analogous, in curvature, to the crystal of a watch. To the neck is 

 attached the rim, about one inch in width, though sometimes two ; this 

 slopes outward at angle of about twenty degrees from a perpendicular. 

 Of some of the smaller vessels the rim stands perpendicularly upon an 

 offset resting upon the neck. Some patterns have no rim, but a mere 

 lip arises from the neck of the vessel, the whole distance of its circum- 

 ference, serving as a hand-hold to lift it by. Some small vessels had 

 neither rims nor lips, their shape being sphei^cal. I found no pieces 



