ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 187 



There are in the collection a number of specimens that do not 

 come under either of the preceding heads. Of these I may men- 

 tion three small figures from Paducah, Kentucky, which represent a 

 snake, a man, and a deer. They are very rudely done, and are pos- 

 sibly modern work. 



Attention should be called to some small specimens resembling 

 toad-stools or mushrooms in shape, some of which may have been 

 stoppers for bottles, while others could have served as implements 

 in some of the arts. One of these pieces has a distinctly vitrified 

 surface. Its age, however, cannot be determined. 



There are a few rude pipes of usual forms and of no special 

 interest. The comparative scarcity of these articles, so plentiful in 

 some of the mound districts, is certainly worthy of the attention of 

 archaeologists. 



UPPER MISSISSIPPI PROVINCE. 



I have already pointed out the fact that most of the pottery of 

 the upper Mississippi region belongs to a distinct family. It has 

 never been as abundant as the pottery of the more southern sections 

 of the country and is not well represented in our museums. There 

 are only a few pieces in the Davenport collection and these are all 

 in a more or less fragmentary state. A majority are from a mound 

 near the city of Davenport, but a limited number came from Wis- 

 consin. 



At this time it is impossible to define, with any degree of pre- 

 cision, the geographical limits of this class of ware. The tribes by 

 whom it was manufactured have doubtless, at one time or another 

 occupied the greater part of the Mississippi basin north of the mouth 

 of the Missouri river. Similarities of material, shape, methods of 

 maufacture, and ornamentation, tend to show that we must include 

 thegreater parts of the States of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, 

 Indiana, and Ohio, in the area covered by this or closely related 

 ceramic groups, and indications of its presence are discovered far be- 

 yond these limits. The mounds of Manitoba have recently furnished 

 examples of this class of ware, and it has decided relationships 

 with the ware of the eastern and northeastern States. It is not yet 

 time to draw close distinctions, as sufficiently detailed studies of 

 the products of the various districts have not been made. 



On the shelves of our museums the difference between the two 

 great families of the middle and upper Mississippi are strikingly 



[Proc. D. a. N. S., Vol. IV.] l>o [Deo. 24. 1SS4.] 



