INDIAN PIPES. 25 



say : " The mound -builders were inveterate smokers, 

 if the great number of pipes discovered in the mounds, 

 be admitted as evidence of the fact. These constitute 

 not only a numerous, but a singularly interesting class 

 of remains. In their construction the skill of the 

 makers seems to have been exhausted. Their general 

 form, which may be regarded as the primitive form of 

 the implement, is well 

 exhibited in the accom- 

 panying sketch. They 

 are always carved from 

 a single piece, and 

 consist of a flat curved 

 base, of variable length 



and width, with the bowl rising from the centre of the 

 convex side. From one of the ends, and communi- 

 cating with the hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small 

 hole, which answers the purpose of a tube ; the corre- 

 sponding opposite division being left for the manifest 

 purpose of holding the implement to the mouth. The 

 specimen above represented is finely carved from a 

 beautiful variety of brown porphyry, granulated with 

 various-coloured materials, the whole much changed 

 by the action of fire, and somewhat resembling por- 

 celain. It is intensely hard, and successfully resists 

 the edge of the finest-tempered knife. The length of 

 the base is five inches, breadth of the same one inch 

 and a quarter ; the bowl is one inch and a quarter high, 

 slightly tapering upwards, but flaring near the top. 

 The hollow of the bowl is six-tenths of an inch 



D. H. HILL LIBRARY 



