Bureau of American Ethnology 3 8 7 



bios ; * while Gushing has worked out several important stages 

 in the development of the potter's art and of the associated 

 symbolism. 2 The art of basketry is in many ways allied to 

 that of pottery, and the decorative designs are alike signifi- 

 cant. Much information has been gathered also concerning 

 wooden-ware and gourd-ware. The researches show that 

 the domestic arts of America are indigenous and essentially 

 a unit, and that the art products cover the entire range from 

 middle or lower savagery up to the borderland of feudal- 

 ism. Fully a score of memoirs published in the reports deal 

 with this subject. 



In connection with the researches relating to native imple- 

 ments, weapons, and utensils, inquiry was made concerning 

 the sources of the materials employed in the arts. As these 

 inquiries were pushed, it was found that extensive quarrying 

 and mining operations were conducted by the Indians in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. Several collaborators were en- 

 gaged in the work, notably Professor Holmes, who explored 

 extensive aboriginal quarries on the Atlantic slope and in the 

 interior, and examined the remarkable mines for copper on 

 Lake Superior and for gold and mica in the Appalachians. 



Researches concerning prehistoric works have recently 

 been extended into Florida, chiefly by Mr. Gushing, and have 

 been rewarded by the most remarkable discoveries in the 

 history of American archaeology ; evidence has been found 

 that the keys and coastal lowlands skirting the Gulf below 

 the twenty-seventh parallel have been occupied, raised by 

 ramparts of shells, indeed artificialized, by a powerful and 

 well-organized sea-faring people ; and the abundant imple- 

 ments, weapons, fabrics, and ceremonial objects found in the 



1 Doctor Fewkes' results are incorporated 2 A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustra- 



in the Seventeenth Annual Report of the tive of Znni Culture Growth," in Fourth An- 



Bureau of Ethnology (in press), and general nual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 



papers in the Smithsonian Reports. 1886, pages 473-521. 



