844 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



found at La Porte, Iud., in which a relief is produced by the punches of 

 a square-pointed stick; against this the lines, curved and of various 

 pattern, stand out more beautiful by far than if cut on a plain surface. 

 The idea of bark impressions which led to their use as a matter of re- 

 lief, did not forbid the drawing of figures on a plain surface when taste 

 seemed to require it. 



The geometrical figures on pots are mostly confined to the neck and 

 its border or rim. In many cases a mere stick may have been used to 

 cut in the lines, but in the best work the clay seems to have been gouged 

 out by some pointed instrument, probably by a pointed bone which 

 had first been fractured so as to expose the hollow interior, and then 

 smoothed down so as to leave a groove at the end. A hollow stick was 

 also effectively used to make small circular dots by way of ornament; 

 these often left a little elevation in the hole, owing to the softness of 

 the pith. The figures themselves may readily be reduced to a few sim- 

 ple plans as far as pots discovered near Dayton were concerned. A 

 common form is to have various oblique lines met by other oblique 

 lines at an angle usually not far from 90 degrees. Another figure was 

 to have a series of parallel wavy lines crossed by others of the same 

 character. The use of a single wavy line is very rare, and in the case 

 discovered was accompanied by a series of dots. The ornaments of 

 the border are somewhat similar, allowing also a very effective one, 

 made by pressing a stick obliquely against the edge of the rim, as many 

 ladies ornament their pies. The dots made as described above were 

 placed wherever they were thought to be effective, and often without 

 any particular arrangement. Little more can be said of this pottery, 

 excepting that the clay was mingled with fine gravel-sand, pounded 

 quartz rocks, pounded gneiss, containing abundance of mica, more rarely 

 with pounded shells. This practice is well known to have been done 

 with a desire to prevent cracking and fracturage during the baking 

 process. The finest and thinnest pottery is about one-eighth of an inch 

 thick, and contains only fine particles; the coarsest and thickest pot- 

 tery is often one-half of an inch thick, and contains coarse pieces of 

 quartz, sometimes an eighth of an inch to three-sixteenths in diameter. 



MOUNDS IN BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO. 



By J. P. MacLean, of Hamilton, Ohio. 



Butler County, Ohio, is situated in the southwestern part of the State, 

 and joins the State of Indiana. Through it passes the Great Miami 

 River in a southerly direction. It contains numerous remains of that 

 people known as the "Mound Builders," among which are not less than 

 two hundred mounds, varying in height from 18 inches to 43 feet. 



