524 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



bis contention, the writer, with due deference to the opinions ot the 

 nian^^ wlio may disagree with his conchisions, woukl add: That tlie age 

 of copper imideinents and their use by the American Indians does not 

 appear to have been sufficiently studied to demonstrate to what extent 

 tliey had been employed prior to the advent of the whites, nor for how 

 long. The tool marks on objects and technology generally of the mound 

 builders appears to have been little considered; the finding of worked 

 silver in mound No. 8, and a silver cross either in this mound or in one 

 near it, as recorded by Squier and Davis, and the finding so commonly 

 in remains of the mound i)eriod objects of European manufacture, all 

 raise the susj)iciou, almost amounting to conviction, that the pijies were 

 contemporaneous with the early whites, probably the French. The two 

 elephants suggest, of course, an acquaintance with the animal, and 

 unless the Indian can be shown to have known the beast before the 

 European invasion, which with our present evidence seems improbcible, 

 the natural inference would be that this knowledge came from the 

 whites, who we do know were well acquainted with the elephant, and 

 as a consequence that the pipes were made after the European invasion 

 of the country. The criticism of Henshaw caused quite a discussion in 

 the archicologic world, though the fact remains that "the artistic merits 

 of the mound builders pipes have in some cases been overrated." ^ 



Dr. Wilson, although suggesting this view, contends "that the objects 

 wrought by their artistic skill reveal no less certainly their familiarity 

 with animals of southern and even tropical latitudes, and the materials 

 emjdoyed in their manufacture include mica of the Alleghenies, obsidian 

 of Mexico, and jade and porphyry, derived probably from the same 

 region or from others still farther south." - 



These views will, however, meet with little agreement in America, for 

 there appears absolutely no proof of any southern infiuences affecting 

 the work on the American mound-builders' pii)es. 



While in many instances it appears impossible to say exactly what 

 was intended to be designed other than man, bird, or beast, it can not 

 be denied that among the mound pipes there are many forms of life 

 skillfully delineated and with true artistic merit. 



Some of these pipes are so carefully ground and their surfaces are so 

 skillfully polished as to preclude the possibility of demonstrating the 

 exact mechanical process employed in working them into shape, though 

 parts of the work of finishing can at times be determined in a measure. 

 The bowls of mound pipes have been bored usually with tubular metal 

 drills, though there are examples bored with solid i)oint. The uniform 

 size of the bowls suggest that if bored by Indian tools, it was done with 

 the solid shaft revolved betx^^eeu the hands. There are exceptions 

 known in which the bowl has an irregular shaiJC, owing to a loose point 

 on the drill shaft, which would suggest its being caused by the employ- 



' Daniel Wilson, Prehistoric ilau, I, p. 3li6, I^oudou, 1876. 

 2 Idem, I, p. 363. 



