38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



14, figure 2. The smaller is in the collection of the United States 

 National Museum. The inside diameters are 13 J inches and lof 

 inches ; depth 5| inches ; thickness from i to f inch. The larger speci- 

 men, not in the Museum collection, is of the same proportions but 

 with a maximum diameter, inside, of i6f inches. 



Innumerable vessels and smaller objects were undoubtedly made 

 in the vicinity of the quarries to be carried away to distant villages, 

 as well as for use in nearby camps ; nevertheless very few pieces of 

 soapstone vessels are found. Several small fragments have been dis- 

 covered on the site of Monasukapanough, together with four pieces 

 of the material that had been sawed. This latter may have been ob- 

 tained from an outcropping a few miles north of the ancient site. 

 Another small fragment of a well finished vessel was encountered 

 on the Moon site, already mentioned. Two tobacco pipes made of 

 soapstone are said to have been found some years ago on a ridge 

 just east of the Southern Railway at Arrowhead, about 8 miles south 

 of the University of Virginia. They were not seen by the writer but 

 were described as being quite small and very well made. The lack of 

 more traces of soapstone on the village and camp sites is difficult to 

 explain. Many vessels were made and used, as shown by evidence at 

 the quarries, but all have disappeared. 



The quarries south of Damon may be the most extensive group 

 worked by Indians in this immediate section of Virginia, but there 

 are several other localities where soapstone was obtained and vessels 

 made. Extensive quarries, possibly worked by the people of the 

 ancient village of Monahassanugh, are situated midway between Nor- 

 wood, on the left bank of the James at the mouth of Buffalo River, 

 and Arrington, a small station on the Southern Railway in Nelson 

 County. Many broken, unfinished vessels have been discovered here, 

 and the two specimens shown in plate 14, figure 2, may have been 

 made at this quarry. Another quarry, not visited by the writer, is 

 in Goochland County about 8i miles in a direct line northeast of the 

 site of Rassawek, at the mouth of the Rivanna, and i^ miles due 

 south of the present village of Tabscott. 



There are other outcroppings of soapstone in the region, in addition 

 to those already mentioned, which show evidence of having been 

 worked by Indians. And although all are well within the bounds of 

 the territory occupied by the Monacan tribes, the last of the native 

 tribes to claim this part of Virginia, the soft stone may have been 

 discovered and worked by others who had preceded them. Nor is 

 the scarcity of objects made of soapstone less mysterious than the 

 identity of the tribes by whom the quarries were opened and the 

 utensils and ornaments fashioned. 



