G18 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS EELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



tions in the rock from the very place where the ancient stonecutter left 

 his rude and unfinished work." Allusion to these so called soapstone ex- 

 cavations and pottery is made in the second biennial report on the Geol- 

 ogy of Alabama, by Professor Tourney, 1858, and also in the first report 

 of the Progress of Geological Survey of Alabama, by Dr. E. Smith, 1874, 

 pages, SG, 91, and 118. The rock from which this specimen has been 

 quarried is rather a fibrous serpentine, intermixed partlj^ with an asbes- 

 toid actinite than a soapstone. A stone chisel has, according to the 

 statement of Dr. Johnston, been found in the soapstone quarries, and 

 was undoubtedly an instrument used in cutting and dressing the vessels, 

 and is of a porphyritic or dioritic rock foreign to the geological forma- 

 tion in that section. 



1 found a i)eculiar tablet of iudurated ferruginous clay, the straight 

 lines along the margin of which would lead one to think that it was 

 used for a tally, "worn around the neck suspended by a string. It was 

 found in an old field on the western shore of Mobile Bay, near Magnolia 

 race course. In this county two kinds of shell-banks or shell-mounds 

 are met with. 



The first are situated in the low marshes of the delta of Mobile Eiver, 

 first recognized as artificial accumulations of shells, and described as 

 the gnathodon beds by Professor Tourney in his second biennial report 

 on Geology of Alabama, 1858. He mentions the same at the time of 

 his visit extending over several acres of ground, and some with an ele- 

 vation of from 10 to 20 feet, presenting the shape of truncated cones, 

 covered with a growth of native forest trees. These beds are almost 

 entirely made of the shells of Gnathodon cuneatiis, but in some quanti- 

 ties of stone of Cyrena caroliiiensis and the Neriiina reclivata have served 

 in a less degree to swell those accumulations ; together with these, 

 charcoal, ashes, and the bones of birds and animals are found. Eelics 

 of the handicraft of the builders of these shell-mounds are almost 

 unknown. Professor Toumey speaks of an instrument cut from the shell 

 of the Pyrula ficus which he found 10 feet below the surface, and of 

 scarce fragments of pottery. These beds are, at this day, almost all 

 levelled to the ground, and are rapidly disappearing, many having been 

 appropriated as excellent sites for market gardens, and vast quantities 

 of shells have been, and are still, removed for the construction of our 

 shell-roads. The time is rapidly approaching when scarce any vestige 

 will be left of them, and it is therefore most to be wished that the little 

 of what yet remains should be closely investigated, and a minute account 

 be put upon permanent record. 



The other shell-banks are situated on the eastern and western shoi'es 

 of Mobile Bay, and along the coast of the Mississippi sound to the mouth 

 of the Pascagoula. They are all above tide- water on dry land, contigu- 

 ous to the extensive oyster beds in these waters, and composed exclu- 

 sively of the oyster. The most interesting and the most extensive of 

 these accumulations made by the ancient Ostreai)hagi is found on the 



