AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PJPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 527 



The specimens of pipes in tlie collection of the V. S. jS^ationnl ^luseiim 

 of the mound type have usually plain bowls, and there is absolutely no 

 reason to suppose them to be other than they are represented. They 

 have been examined closely for surface indications of tool marks, which 

 were found in most instances, and suggest the presence of the metal hie 

 of the whites. Their geographical distribution would also suggest 

 Lake ^Michigan or Erie as being the point of origin of the type rather 

 than either of the extremes of Chillicothe or Davenport. The similar- 

 ity of the type is undoubtedly due to a common origin for the Iowa 

 and Ohio pipes, though the curved base of Ohio appears to have a 

 tendency to flatten along the Mississippi bank of the State of Iowa, 

 though it would be natural to suppose the flat base more ancient and 

 more readily made than the curved. The localities where these pipes 

 are usually found corresponds with the route which Marquette and other 

 French travelers appear to have followed down to the Mississippi and 

 into Ohio from Lake Erie, which is presumably the route well known 

 to the fur traders who preceded the discoverers. The style of the carv- 

 ing on these i^ipes is certainly more of 

 a civilized than of a savage character, 

 and undoubtedly belongs to a much 

 higher art than other prinntive and 

 ancient objects found on the North 

 American continent, and does not cor- 

 respond with what is known of the 

 l)roduct of the Indians' primitive tools. 

 The writer is informed by Mr. David pj_, ^3^ 



Boyle, an authority on the archaeology straight-base mound pipe. 



of Ontario, in answer to a question as Clifton. Kanawlia County, west Virginia. 



. I J.1 4.1 14. e • ^ ■[ 1 Cat. No. .-Sin, U.S.N. M. Collected by P. W. N..rris. 



to whether the mound type ot pi])e had 



been found in Ontario or on the St. Lawrence, that, " indeed it would 

 not surprise me to find a few stray pipes of this kind in Ontario, but 

 nothing of the sort has come to my notice. If French influence was in 

 any way connected with the curved base, nothing is more reasonable 

 than that numerous examples of it should be met with in this country, 

 but, while I am not in a position to state positively, I have never even 

 heard of one. I think that the fact of curved base pipes being found 

 always on the line of French travel is merely a coincidence and a very 

 natural one. Those who aflected this style of pipe along the valleys of 

 the Scioto, the Wabash, the Illinois, and the Wisconsin were the people 

 among whom the voi/ageur and the coureaur du hois met with most suc- 

 cess in their trading operations, and the following of the river routes 

 was as natural to the Frenchman as to the Indian. That many pipes 

 are the product of European skill is, I think, undoubted, but I some- 

 times think also there is a tendency to attribute too much to this source. 

 It is undoubted that there is a tendency to modernize the Indian and 

 his manufactures, though, on the other hand, those favoring his great 



