26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



were carried from the quarries to the village, there to be cut and made 

 into finished products, but what they were has not been discovered. 



Four small pieces of soapstone have recently been found on the 

 site, not far from the left bank of the Rivanna and all close together. 

 These show the effect of having been sawed on opposite sides, then 

 broken apart. Three of the specimens are figured in plate lo, figure i, 

 and reveal clearly the shallow grooves worn in the soft stone during 

 the process of cutting. A piece of stone had probably been used in 

 sawing the comparatively soft material, and this had evidently been 

 quite thick as is indicated by the angle of the cut surface of the re- 

 maining portion. 



Another specimen of soapstone, showing the effect of sawing and 

 breaking, is in the collection of the National Museum (U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. Cat. No. 170257). This was found at the junction of the Dan 

 and Staunton Rivers, near Clarksville, Mecklenburg County, where 

 the two streams unite to form the Roanoke. Eastward, in the adjoin- 

 ing county of Brunswick, stood Fort Christanna. The region was 

 much frequented by Indians, and the Saponi and Tutelo — the ancient 

 inhabitants of Monasukapanough and Monahassanugh — are known to 

 have occupied islands in the Roanoke for a short period during their 

 southern movement, before turning northward to settle at Fort 

 Christanna. 



_ CORDS, TEXTILES, AND BASKETRY AS REVEALED BY 

 IMPRESSIONS ON POTTERY 



The journal written by Col. William Byrd while engaged in running 

 the dividing line between Virginia and Carolina contains much inter- 

 esting information. In it are many references to the beliefs and 

 customs of the Indians, and much of this is believed to have been 

 related by Bearskin, the old Saponi hunter and guide from the village 

 near Fort Christanna, who accompanied the expedition and served it 

 so faithfully. 



On November lo, 1728, Byrd wrote in part:' "One of the men, 

 who had been an old Indian trader, brought me a stem of silk grass, 

 which was about as big as my little finger. But, being so late in the 

 year that the leaf was fallen off, I am not able to describe the plant. 

 The Indians use it in all their little manufactures, twisting a thread 

 of it that is prodigiously strong. Of this they make their baskets 

 and the aprons which their women wear about their middles, for 

 decency's sake. These are long enough to wrap quite round them and 



^ Byrd, William, The Westover manuscripts : containing the history of the 

 dividing line Petersburg, 1841. 



