SMITHSONIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



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being rather uncouth si^ecimens of aboriginal art; others, again, are tolerably 

 well formed, and betoken no small degree of ijerseverance on the part of their 

 makers. Most of those seen by the writer Avere of an elongated shape, some- 

 what like a Ijoat or a trough, and provided with projections or handles at the 

 ojiposite narrower extremities (Fig. 143, Massachusetts). A bowl-shaped 

 vessel from Wyoming Territory (Fig. 144) is made of the same material. 

 By far the best potstone vessels, however, have been found in the Californian 

 districts before mentioned. ^^ Among them are nearly globular cooking vessels 

 with rather narrow apertures encircled by raised rims. Some of them measure 

 more than a foot in height and fifteen inches in diameter, and their thickness, 

 about five-eighths of an inch at the rim, gradually increases toward the bottom. 

 These utensils are admirable specimens of Indian skill, being almost as regu- 

 lar in outline as though they had been produced with the assistance of the 

 turner's wheel (Fig. llo, Dos Pueblos, Santa Barliara County). Other Cali- 

 fornian potstone vessels of large size jiresent the shape of high bowls. One 

 of them is pierced Avith two small holes near the rim, evidently for repairing 

 the damage produced by a crack (Fig. 146, Dos Pueblos). Among the smaller 

 vessels made of the same material, and obtained from the same region, may 

 be mentioned one which is formed in the shajie of a boat (Fig. 117, Santa 

 Cruz Island). Serpentine Avas likewise employed by the Californian aborigines 

 as the material for vessels, such as cups, boAvls, etc., which are in no Avay in- 

 ferior to those made of potstone, and even surpass them by being Avell polished 

 (Fig. 148, serpentine, San Miguel Island) . It seems, hoAvcA^er, that only small 

 or medium-sized objects of this class Avere made of serpentine. A small Cali- 

 fornian sandstone vessel Avith an OA^al apertui'e, and deeply hollowed, probably 

 served as a drinking cup (Fig. 149, Santa Cruz Island). 



STONE PLATES (I). 



It may not be altogether out of jilace to mention in connection Avith stone 

 vessels a class of remarkable stone jjlates, Avhich possibly may have pertained 

 to the culinary utensils of the aborigines. One of the specimens is a jjerfectly 



"These stone vessels as well as tlie Californian mortars and pestles described ou tlie following pages 

 were recovered from graves by Mr. Paul Schumaclier. 



