208 



discovered remains of the arts of the Mound Builders. Each of 

 these tortoise shells would seem to have originally been covered 

 with several wrappings of a very singular character, and one still 

 adheres to its original envelope, presenting" a peculiar mummi- 

 fied appearance. This somewhat remarkable peculiarity is com- 

 mon to many of the other relics here found, and each of the 

 successive coatings with which they are covered has been submit- 

 ted to microscopic examination by Dr. George J. Engelmann, of 

 St. Louis, with results as shown by the engravings on Plate VIII. 

 Closely fitting over the outer s^irface of the copper shell is, first, a 

 woven cloth of a vegetable fibre, similar in its general character 

 to the outer matting above described, but of a stronger and better 

 preserved fibre, apparently more like that which forms the woven 

 coating of the Davenport axes.* This is covered in turn with a 

 softer, finer fabric, now of a dark-brown color, formed of twisted 

 strands, laid or matted closely together, though apparently not woven. 

 The material of which these strands are formed proves, under mi- 

 croscopic examination, to be animal hair, as shown in fig. 3, Plate 

 VIII. This fact is of singular interest, as it is believed that this 

 is the only instance in which any such fabric has been discovered in 

 connection with relics of the Mound Builders. A careful examina- 

 tion would seem to show the material to be rabbit's hair, in a per- 

 fect state of preservation, though none but short hairs are found 

 and most of these are without either tip or base, though occasion- 

 ally, as shown in the plate, the tips are found, as also the parts 

 towards the base of the hairs, showing several rows of cells. For 

 the purpose of comparison in establishing tlieir identity, the hair 

 of the common rabbit as it appears under the microsco23e, is shown 

 in the first three cuts, Plate VIII; fig. Ih, showing that part near 

 the tip; fig. la, that near the root of a large hair, and Ic, a section 

 near the root of a smaller hair ; fig. 2, Plate VIII is a section from 

 near the root of a deer's hair; the tips of these deer's hairs, how- 

 ever, bear a much greater resemblance to those of the rabbit as 

 exhibited in the cuts. Especially noticeable is the extreme nicety 

 with which these fine strands are laid together to form a close- 

 fitting coat. 



Overlying this singular fabric and adhering quite closely to it is 

 a dark colored layer, which under the microscope (fig. 4, Plate 

 VIII) is shown to consist of a membraneous substance with numer- 



*Prof. Asa Gray, on a hurried examination of this matting, expresses the opinion that it is 

 made of a bark fibre (not bast), possibly from the fibrous barli of Thuja. 



