Penfyfcania, Philadelphia. 257 



efttire and not damaged : I could perceive no 

 glaze or colour upon it, but on the outfide it was 

 very much ornamented, and upon the whole well 

 made. Mr. Bdrtram (hewed me feveral pieces 

 of broken earthen veflels which the Indians for-* 

 merly made ufe of. It plainly appeared in all 

 thefe that they were not made of mer^ clay; but 

 that different materials had been mixed with it, 

 according to the nature of the places where they 

 were made. Thofe Indians, for example, who 

 lived near the fea-fhore, pounded the ihells of 

 fnails and mufcles, and mixed them with the 

 clay. Others who lived further up in the coun- 

 try, where mountain cryftals could be found, 

 pounded them and mixed them with their clay; . 

 but how they proceeded in making the veflels, 

 is entirely unknown ; it was plain that they did 

 not burn them much, for they were fo foft that 

 they might be cut in pieces with a knife : 

 the workmanfhip however feems to have been 

 very good; for at prefent they find whole vef- 

 fels or pieces in the ground, which are not da- 

 maged at all, though they have lain in the ground 

 above a century. Before the Europeans fettled in 

 North America, the Indians had no other veffels . 

 to boil their meat in, than thefe earthen pots of 

 their own making: but fmce their arrival, they 

 have always bought pots, kettles, and other ne- 

 ceflary veflels, of the Europeans, and take no 

 longer the pains of making fome, by which 

 means this art is entirely loft among them. Such 

 veflels of their own conftruction are therefore a 

 great rarity even among the Indians. I have feen 

 fuch old pots s and pieces of them, coniifting of a 

 VOL. I. S kind 



