528 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



antiquity have for so long held the field that to raise the question will 

 only open the door to impartial examination and final successful deter- 

 mination after a thorough investigation of all the proofs." 



Fig. 137 is a straight-based white limestone i)ipe of the mound type, 

 collected by Mr. P. W. Norris. Though the bowl is very plain and the 

 base extends only on one side of it, th<'- stem opening of this j)ipe is 

 three-eighths of an inch and that of the bowl about 1 inch, which 

 marks this specimen as quite unusual for this type in its stem, from 

 the large opening. It was found at Clifton, Kanawha County, West 

 Virginia, and is very much weathered and as soft, almost, as chalk. 

 Another specimen of this type, having an unusually large stem, is in 

 the Douglass collection, which was found in Iligliland County, Ohio, 

 being made of a light gray stone. Yet another, apparently rehited to 

 these two, having a stem opening of three-eighths of an inch, is in the 

 same collection and is from Putnam County, West Virginia. 



DOUBLE CONOIDAL PIPES. 



There is yet another and markedly distinct type of pipe which is 

 found distributed over a wide, though contiguous, area, which invites 

 most careful scrutiny, whether from a technological, archaeological, 

 or ethnological standpoint. The characteristics entitling it to be 



classed as of like type are, that the 

 bowl and stem holes consist of conoi- 

 dal excavations made at right angles 

 to each other, meeting at their apices 

 where the two cavities intersect. This 

 type, in its exterior form, varies 

 greatly, in fact more than probably 

 any other American type known, yet 

 the stem and bowl are so true to type 

 as to stamp a kinship which is diffi- 

 cult to ignore. Did we alone consider 

 merely the biconical perforations, in 

 the majority of instances it would be 

 impossible to say which was intended 

 to hold the stem and which the tobacco, 

 and it nuist further be admitted that 

 in the whole number of pipes of this 

 type in the collection of the IT. S. National Museum there is not a 

 single specimen which has upon it, so far as the writer could observe, a 

 mark indicative of the use of other than the stone tool of the primitive 

 Indian, though many of this type are of quite elaborate design. Certain 

 similar art concepts are observable in this type within restricted areas 

 and it will be interesting to determine whether they are due to tribal, 

 totemic, or trade influences. The materials of which these pipes are 

 made are as varied as the pipes themselves. They are found of pottery, 

 indurated clay, steatite, and even sandstone. The pottery of some is 



Fig. 138. 

 DOUBLE CONOIDAL PIPE. 



McNairy County, Tennessee. 



Cat. Nu. 97430, U.S.N.M. Collected by W. M. Clark. 



