516 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



Squier and Davis instance a unique curved-base pipe, upon the 

 upper surlace of the base of which are a number of small holes. Among- 

 mound pipes many are found the bowls of which are spool-shaped on 

 a curved base.' 



Fowke fignres one from Williamsville, Virginia.- Squier and Davis 

 also record a specimen from a mound on the east bank of the Scioto 

 River, found in association with a thin copper plate.' 



One of pipestone is recorded from Buffalo Township, Iowa, by j\Ir. S. 

 Titiany.' 



The fact of these pipes being buried with liuman bodies has been 

 thought to i^rove that they were invested with religious significance, 

 Ihongh the same argument would e(iually apply to the many other 

 objects Ibund in aboriginal graves, which were the usual receptacles of 

 the possessiojis of the dead — a custom by no means contiued to 

 America and applies to most countries with eqnal Ibrce. In mound 

 No. 8 S(]uier and ])avis found nearly 200 pipes, many of which '-were 

 much broken up, some of them calcined by the heat, which had been 

 sufficiently strong to melt copper."'' 



The figui-es of some of ihese pipes of animal form ai)pear to have had 

 artificial eyes, most of which were destroyed by fire; a pearl, however, 

 which formed the eye of one, yet remains.'' 



A similar occurrence is noted of a bird pipe made of pii)e stone found 

 in a mound at Toolsboro, Iowa, with pearl eyes.' 



Pearls are found in some of the unios of the Mississippi. These 

 pipes were originally supposed to be very hard and of a porj)hyritic 

 character, but upon investigation were discovered to be either a sili- 

 ceous clay slate, an argillaceous ironstone, a pearly l)rown ferruginous 

 chlorite, calcareous marl, or maily limestone.'' 



In the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York City there are twelve or thirteen si:)ecimeus and fragments of the 

 Squier and Davis pipes from Mound City, (3hio. Mr. A. E. Douglass also 

 has two very perfect ones of the Squier and Davis find. There is in these 

 collections enough material to demonstrate that the technical work on 

 these curved base pipes, which have caused so much wonder for the 

 last forty years, is of a very sui)erior order. The artistic skill of those 

 making them is evidenced in eveiy line of the i)ipes and of their 

 ornamentation. The bowls have been perforated by means of hollow 

 metal drill points and the small stem holes by solid points; the scales 

 on the frogs and the feathers of the birds are cut with an accuracy and 



'Ancient Mounments of the ISIississippi Valley, p. 30. 



2 Archa-oloKical Investigations of the Janiea and Potomac Valleys, p. 30, l\g. 5. 



^Aucieiit Monuments of the Miississippi Valley, ]). 179, fig. 08. 



< W. H.Pratt, Proceedings, UavenportAcadeniy of Natural Sciences, I, p. 113, plate i\'. 



■''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 152. 



^Edward T. Stevens, Flint Chijis, p. 42."), fig. 4S, London, 1870. 



^\V. H. Pratt, Proceedings, Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, I, ]>. 108. 



"Edward T. Stevens, Flint Chips, p. 414, Loudon, 1870. 



