88 DANIEL WILSON ON THE ARTISTIC 



attention to the discovery, recorded by Fournal and Ohrisiie, of fragments of pottery in the 

 mud and breccia of caverns in the south of France, along with bones of man and animals, 

 including those of the hyaena and rhinoceros. Those, however, whatever be their true 

 epoch, are mere potsherds, valuable in so far as they indicate the practice of the potter's 

 art at such a time, but furnishing no illustration of skill in modelling. 



The pottery foiind in graves of the Neolithic Period is mostly so imperfectly burned, 

 that, however abundant it may have been, it could scarcely leave a trace in the breccia, or 

 river gravel, from which the larger number of relics of palœolithic man have been 

 recovered. But the pottery and terra-cottas which abound on the sites of Indian villages 

 in North America, everywhere exhibit traces of imitative art, in the efforts at modelling the 

 human form, and the more or less successful reproduction of familiar natural objects. Mr. 

 Squier remarks in his "Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York," that "upon the 

 site of every Indian town, as also within all of the ancient enclosures, fragments of pottery 

 occur in great abundance. It is rare, howcA^er, that any entire vessels are recovered. . . . 

 In general there was no attempt at ornament ; but sometimes the exteriors of the pots 

 and Abases were elaborately, if not tastefully, ornamented with dots and lines, which 

 seem to have been formed in a A'ery rude manner with a pointed stick or sharpen.ed bone. 

 Bones which appear to have been adapted for the purpose are often found." ' Ornamenta- 

 tion of a more artistic kind appears to have been most frequently reserved by the native 

 workers in clay for their pipes, to which at times a sacred character was attached, 

 and on which accordingly they lavished their highest skill as modellers and carvers. 

 Some of the smaller articles of burnt clay, however, which Mr. Squier denominates terra- 

 cottas, were probably fragments of domestic pottery similar to those hereafter described 

 among the relics of the ancient Indian town of Hochelaga. One example of an ingenioiisly 

 modelled pipe, found within an enclosure in Jefferson County, New York, is specially 

 selected as a good illustration of Indian art. It is of fine red clay, smoothly moulded, 

 with two serpents coiling round the bowl. " Bushels of fragments of pipes," he adds, 

 " have been foixud within the same enclosure." A carved stone pipe, from a grave in Cayuga 

 County, is described as fashioned in the form of a bird with eyes made of silver inserted 

 in the head ; and Mr. Squier notes of another specimen : " The most beautiful terra-cotta 

 which I found in the State, and which in point of accuracy and delicacy of finish is unsur- 

 passed by any similar article which I have seen of aboriginal origin, is the head of a fox. 

 The engraving fails to convey the spirit of the original, which is composed of fine clay 

 slightly burned. It seems to have been once attached to a body, or perhaps to a A'essel of 

 some kind. It closely resembles some of the terra-cottas from the mounds of the west and 

 south-west. It was found iipon the site of an ancient enclosure in Jefferson County, in the 

 town of Ellisburg." Again in describing some similiar relics from the site of an old Seneca 

 village in Monroe County, he adds: "The spot is remarkable for the number and variety 

 of its ancient relics. Vast quantities of these have been removed from time to time. Some 

 of the miniature representations of animals found here are remarkable for their accuracy." " 



The descriptions thus furnished of the traces of aboriginal art in the State of New 

 York closely correspond to the remains recovered on the sites of ancient Indian villages in 

 Canada. A finely modelled clay-pipe, with a serpent twined round it, and holding a 



' Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, ii. 75. ^ Aboriginal Monuments, etc., p, 76. 



