662 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



were found in good preservation, the remains of a gun barrel and lock, 

 a number of glass bottles, one of whicli was found nearly half filled 

 with some sort of liquid. These articles were probably obtained from 

 the Dutch, either by present or by trade. There was also found a pair 

 of shears, a pistol, lead pipes, strings of wampum, small brass rings, 

 glass beads ; a female skeleton with a brass comb ; the hair was in a 

 state of preservation wherever it came in contact with the comb. Af- 

 ter the Podunks had removed from these parts they were known to 

 have brought a dead child from toward Norwich and interred it in 

 this burying place." 



The Podunk Indians were of peaceable disposition, and we have no 

 records of serious feuds between them and the white settlers. They 

 (the Indians) suffered much from forays of the Mohawks, who roamed 

 across the wilderness from the northwest. 



Of scattered relics, quartz and flint arrow points are most frequently 

 found here. These were probably in numerous instances lost by the 

 Indians in hunting. Then we have stone axes, hoes, chisels, gouges, 

 and pestles. A large proportion of the axes, hoes, chisels, gouges, and 

 pestles fire made of trap-rock, and many of them have had but very 

 little artificial fashioning to adapt them to their uses. 



There are localities in this State, one of which in New Britain, I have 

 particularly examined, where trap-rock, broken from the face of a cliff' 

 by the atmospheric vicissitudes of centuries, has accumulated in a slo- 

 ping -pile at the foot of the clifit". This debris consists of elongated and 

 angular fragments, some of which, untouched as they are by art, would, 

 if found in our fields to-day, be mistaken for genuine Indian relics. 

 Kettles excavated from lumps of soapstone are sometimes found. These 

 are usually broken and portions missing. They are of rude oval form, 

 with a capacity of from one to three gallons ; they have short, project- 

 ing handles or lugs at the ends, and are without ornamental carving. 

 The sides and bottoms are from half an inch to an inch in thickness, 

 and are sometimes externally sooted, indicating that they were used in 

 cooking. 



Fragments of clay pottery are frequently found here, though it is rare 

 to find a single piece large enough to show the size or shape of the ves- 

 sel from which it was broken. Occasionally a sufiQcieut number of j)ieces 

 of one utensil are obtainable to admit of a reconstruction. One which 

 1 have in my jiossessiou was put together with glue and brick-dust, and 

 some gaps were sui^plied with the same composition. It is now sound, 

 strong, and perfect in appearance, and, for exhibition purposes, as good 

 as if it had never been broken. This pot is egg-sliaped, about fourteen 

 and a half inches high and eleven inches in diameter, with a contrac- 

 tion in the rim below the mouth. The sides are about three-eighths 

 of an inch thick. Similar pottery is always rudely ornamented on the 

 outside by dots or lines, smooth or serrated, which were impressed by 

 l)ointed implements when the clay was soft. Granules of quartz or mica 



