40 PECKED, GEOUND AND POLISHED STOl^fE. 



Four miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio, there lies, close to the Scioto River, 

 an emljankment of earth, somewhat in the shape of a square with strongly 

 rounded angles, and enclosing an area of thirteen acres, over which twenty- 

 three mounds are scattered without much regularity. This work has been 

 called "Mound City," from the great number of mounds within its precinct. 

 In digging into the mounds, Squier and Davis discovered hearths in many of 

 them, which furnished a great number of relics, and from one of the hearths 

 nearly two hundred stone pipes of singular form were taken, many of which, 

 unfortunately, were cracked by the action of fire, or otherwise damaged. The 

 occurrence of such pipes, however, Avas not confined to the mound in question, 

 others having been found elsewhere in Ohio, and likewise in mounds of Indi- 

 ana. In their simple or primitive form they present a round bowl rising from 

 the middle of a flat and somewhat curved base, one side of which communi- 

 cates by means of a narrow perforation, usually one-sixteenth of an inch in 

 diameter, with the hollow of the bowl, and represents the tube or rather the 

 mouth-piece of the pipe, while the other imperforated end forms the handle 

 by which the smoker held the implement and approached it to his mouth. A 

 remarkably fine specimen of this kind (Fig. 177) was found in a mound of an 

 ancient work in Liberty Township, Ross Couut}^, Ohio. In the more elaborate 

 specimens from "Mound City" the bowl is formed in a few instances in imita- 

 tion of the human head, but generally of the body of some animal, and in the 

 latter cases the peculiarities of the species which have served as models are 

 frequently expressed with surprising fidelity. The human heads, undoubtedly 

 the most valuable specimens of the series, evidently bear features characteristic 

 of the Indian race, and they are further remarkable for the head-dress or 

 method of arranging the hair (Fig. 178). A few of the heads show on the 

 face incised ornamental lines, obviously intended to imitate the painting or 

 tattooing of the countenance. The following mammals have been recognized: 

 the beaver (Fig. 179), the otter (with a fish in its mouth. Fig. 180), the 

 elk, bear, wolf, panther, wild-cat, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, and sea-cow 

 (manati, lamantin, Trichecus manatus, Lin.). Of the animal which is sup- 

 posed to represent the sea-cow, seven carvings have been found. This inhabi- 

 tant of tropical waters is not met in the higher latitudes of ISTorth America, 

 but only on the coast of Florida, which is many hundred miles distant from 

 Ohio. The Florida Indians called this animal the "big beaver," and hunted it 

 on account of its flesh and bones.'^^ More frequent are carvings of birds, 

 among which the eagle, hawk, falcon, turkey-buzzard, heron (Fig. 181), sev- 

 eral species of owls, the raven, swallow, parrot, duck, and other land and 

 water-birds have been recognized. One of the specimens is supposed to rep- 

 resent the toucan, a tropical bird not inhabiting the United States; but the 

 figure is not of suflicient distinctness to identify the original that was before 

 the artist's mind, and it would not be safe, therefore, to make this specimen 



^'Bartram: Travels, Dublin, 1793, p. 229. 



