182 A NATURE WOOING. 



It is very smooth on the inside, rough and smoke be- 

 grimed without. Its size is two by four and a half 

 inches and its thickness about three-quarters of an 

 inch, or 17 to 19 mm. Other smaller fragments of 

 the same material were seen in the load of shells by 

 Mr. B., but were not saved. 



The piece given me was submitted to Dr. W. J. 

 McGee, of the Bureau of American Ethnology at 

 Washington, who reported on it as follows: "The 

 fragment of a large steatite pot mentioned in your 

 note has just come to hand. The vessel was evidently 

 of considerable size and excellent finish for this ma- 

 terial. The specimen is of interest as indicating a 

 wide distribution of steatite pottery. The best known 

 aboriginal steatite quarries are in the Piedmont re- 

 gion, in a belt extending from about the Delaware 

 River southward nearly or quite to the Savannah; 

 but there is no probability that the material was quar- 

 ried nearer to Ormond than northwestern Georgia, 

 while the utensil represented by your specimen may 

 perhaps have been transported much farther than 

 this. Ordinarily the steatite pots are elliptical or of 

 a broad boat-shape, with projecting handles (some- 

 times carved into rude effigies) at either end; your 

 specimen may represent the side of such a pot, though 

 its curvature suggests that it may be from a specimen 

 of more nearly cylindrical cross-section." 



Aside from the pieces of pottery, the only artificial 

 objects found during my investigation of the mound 



