LOST AETS OP PRIMITIVE EACES. 147 



as we have already seen, the potter's art, in itself the 

 germ of many others, has perished from the Indian 

 tribes of North America, and the art of making gold 

 jewellery from the Indian tribes of Central America, 

 while many important arts practised by the old mound- 

 builders are now wholly extinct among their successors 

 in the same regions. 



Perhaps few illustrations of this are more striking 

 than those afforded by what is known as to the art of 

 drilling, perforating, and carving hard stones, as 

 practised by nations not acquainted with the use of 

 metals. This art was universal among the primitive 

 people of the northern hemisphere, as evidenced by 

 the stone hatchets with sockets for handles found both 

 in Europe and America, and by the marvellously 

 carved and bored pipes made of the hardest stones by 

 the American Indians. Professor Rau, of New York, 

 who has given much attention to this subject, has 

 shown that the means employed to bore round holes 

 was either a hollow cane or a solid round stick, sup- 

 plied with sand and water, and rotated with a drill 

 bow, either of the kind called the " pump- drill," and 

 used by the Iroquois and other tribes, or of the kind 

 now commonly employed by artisans, and which was 

 known to the Alleghans and other primitive nations. 

 This zealous and judicious observer further tried the 

 experiment of boring in this way, and found it most 

 tedious work. 



" The deeper the drill penetrated into the stone, the 

 more difficult the work became, which induced me, 



