00 FOSSIL MEN. 



not characteristic of particular stages so much as of 

 opportunities, and may be perishable or the reverse. 

 In Central America the Spaniards found some nations 

 not very far advanced in civilization whose ordinary 

 utensils were of gold. On the other hand, many 

 tribes had merely earthen vessels, and some were 

 destitute of these, and used baskets or bark vessels 

 only. The latter were especially characteristic of 

 nomadic tribes, and of parties making long expedi- 

 tions. People without beasts of burden or convey- 

 ances of any kind other than canoes, could not safely 

 or conveniently transport with them heavy and fragile 

 vessels. To them, therefore, the potter's art was 

 unsuited ; but so soon as such tribes became settled, 

 they would adopt earthenware as the most cheap 

 and convenient vessels. A tribe, therefore, of roving 

 habits, or living in a region where it was necessary 

 to make periodical migrations, might be destitute of 

 pottery, though they might have vessels of wood, 

 basket-work, or bark, more neatly and artificially con- 

 structed than the clay pots of more settled tribes. 

 Still, the latter would leave a monument of their art 

 in the debris of their pottery, which would be wholly 

 wanting in the case of the former. Further, the 

 pottery of primitive tribes is of a sort which speedily 

 becomes disintegrated in a wet soil or ground up by 

 attrition, so that river-side tribes might leave no sign 

 of it, when it might be met with abundantly in the 

 old residences of cavern and upland tribes. 



The Hochelagans were potters, and, as we know to 



