434 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



Fig. 63. 



ANTLER PIPE. 



Fort AVrangel, Alaska. 



U. S. National Rhiseum. Collected 

 by F. M. Ring. 



upon whicli the design has been traced, and all tlie rest of the surface 

 scraped or gouged away, leaving the original surface in low relief. 

 A quaint pipe, made of the base of a deer's antler sawed off where it 

 joins the skull, is shown in tig. 63, from Fort Wran- 

 gel, Alaska, collected by Lieut. F. M. Ring, United 

 States Navy. The person who made this pipe has 

 taken advantage of natural form to the fullest ex- 

 tent in leaving the original horn to represent a 

 head covering, or the individual's hair. This gro- 

 tesque carving is reversible and not devoid of 

 humor, something frequently observed in the carv- 

 ings and etchings of the Northwest coast. The 

 specimen is evidently modern and made with 

 modern iron tools, though the characteristics are 

 peculiar to the Northwest coast. 



Fig. 64 j)resents a combination of savagery and 

 civilization, nature and art, and the present blended 

 with hoary antiquity in a manner than which it 

 were difficult to imagine a more remarkable and 

 striking example. It is from Pottawatomie, 

 Kansas, collected by the National Institute, and 

 is about 4 inches high and made of the outer whorl 

 of an ammonite (i^robably Schkenhachia peruviana, or aeiiticarinata), 

 the shape of which attracted the curiosity of the Indians. Broken 

 in three pieces, it has been carefully repaired 

 by means of plates of iron on each side, 

 w^hicli are held in jiosition by rivets running 

 from plate to plate through the fossil. The 

 face, while rude, is reasonably well modeled 

 and carefully smoothed, and i^reseiits the 

 Indian type. Indeed, the work has been so 

 carefully executed as to leave some doubt 

 whether a part of this object, that comi^rising 

 the head, has not been artificially built up and 

 molded rather than carved from the ammonite. 

 There is no reason to suppose this specimen to 

 be of any considerable age, though it is typi- 

 cally Indian. 



Pipes of similar shape to those here figured 

 of the bowl type have been found in many of 

 tlie States of the Union, though with few excep- 

 tions they are noted east of the Mississippi 

 lliver, and there is no pipe so difficult to place 



in its jiroper area as this form; for while certain of them are undoubt- 

 edly quite old, others of the same type are certainly of modern work- 

 manship. 



Fig. 64. 



FOSSIL PIPE. 



Pottawatomie, Kansas. 



Cat. No. 7825, U.S.N.M. Collected by the 

 National Institute, 



