344 ETHNOLOGY. 



be easily altered in its general appearance, and, further, that the great 

 majority of pipes were probably of a plain character, no single one being 

 especially distinguishable from its fellows. But for the few lines upon 

 the specimen figured in No. 182, it would not differ noticeably from that 

 in Rutger's College Museum j and might not a dozen others be but fac- 

 similes of figure 180 ? 



Chapter XX. 



POTTERY. 



In certain localities, fragments of black, brown, and red pottery are 

 almost as abundant as arrow-points in others. Unfortunately, these frag- 

 ments are generally too small for determining the shape of the vessels to 

 which each belonged ; they are, however, large enough to show one 

 characteristic of aboriginal pottery, viz, profuse ornamentation. This 

 was principally by lines and dots, but the variety of the combinations of 

 these is so inexhaustible that we have seldom met with two fragments, 

 not of the same vessel, which were identical. 



The lines and square " dots" have been formed by removing a small 

 portion of the clay while soft, and not by mere displacement by pres- 

 sure with a cord or sharp stick or bono. The edges are sharp and 

 well defined, and never merely elevated ridges, which give the inter- 

 vening depressions the appearance of carved lines. 



Figures 184, 185, 18G, and 187 are good examples of the usual "find" 

 of pottery -fragments, both as to size and general character of ornamen- 

 tation. These specimens are all formed of the blue clay ("triassic"), 

 as determined b^^ Prof. T. A. Conrad, of Philadelphia, which underlies 

 and constitutes in part the bluff running parallel to the Delaware 

 Elver and skirting the meadows from Trenton, N. J., to Bordentown 

 and beyond. This clay, which is now used in terra-cotta establishments, 

 was not used by the aborigines in its jiure state, but was mixed with 

 sand, mica, or pounded mussel-shells, or with all of them. The mixture 

 of other materials does not apjiear to have affected the color, since we have 

 found pieces of every shade of brown, black, red, &c. Judging from 

 the degrees of curvature of even these small fragments, the vessels of 

 which they are pieces were originally small, globular, and would hold 

 not more than a quart, but usually they were of about two-thirds this 

 capacity. 



Figure 188 represents a fragment of pottery peculiarly ornamented. 

 Besides a narrow line which is met near the middle of the fragment and, 

 at nearly a right angle, by another, showing that but few lines were en- 

 graved upon the vessel, there are rows of curious " dots " formed by 

 pressing the clay, while soft, with a hollow tube (in this case a spear of 

 grass) ; the clay rising into the tube leaves a bead-like formation on the 

 pottery. We have not met with any other fragment with bead-like 

 markings similar to these, either in rows, as in this instance, or scat- 

 tered about. 



