96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 37 
Seven of the mounds were opened, from the largest to the smallest. 
Two of these were on the edge of the bayou; the others were selected 
at random among those farther back. In each, the central portion of 
the structure was removed to a depth which made it certain that 
undisturbed earth or subsoil was reached, and the excavation was 
carried to a sufficient distance on all sides to show there was nothing 
beyond worthy of investigation. 
On the bottom, at the center, of the largest mound, next to the 
bayou, were decayed fragmentary human bones; but neither in this 
mound nor in any of the others explored was any artificial object 
discovered except a few pieces of flint or pottery, which clearly had 
been gathered up in the course of the building and thrown in with the 
earth. In one mound was a fragment of a clay disk; in another, a 
broken specimen of one of the objects commonly called bottle stoppers 
for the reason that cases are reported 4 in which vessels with slender 
necks (the gourd-like form) have been found with these objects in the 
mouth or opening. While many of the ‘‘stoppers’”? were no doubt 
thus used, it is probable that others, perhaps most of them, were 
employed in the manufacture of pottery. The convex surface of the 
expanded portion, if carefully polished, as most of these objects are, 
would be well adapted for shaping and smoothing the interior of 
vessels built up by the coiling process, or by gradual accretion from 
the base, the projecting part affording a convenient handle. 
It seems the ‘‘ stoppers” also filled a more important office in this 
sort of work, as described by Mr. Christopher Wren in the following 
paragraph :? 
At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition * * * the writersawaCocopa Indian from 
Arizona making pottery * * * . Thetoolsshe used for molding aclay pot consisted 
of a baked clay implement somewhat larger than and resembling an ordinary door 
knob, with a stem or handle about four inches long projecting from one of the flat 
sides, and a small wooden paddle made from a piece of dry goods box. Seating herself 
on the bare ground * * * she held the clay implement in her left hand on which 
she placed a flattened ball or “pat” of clay, containing as much of the moderately 
moistened clay as would make the vessel she was working upon. With the wooden 
paddle in her right hand, being right handed, she beat the clay down, causing it to 
spread over the “door knob” implement and to hang down over the edges. From 
time to time, as the work progressed, she moved the tool in her left hand about on the 
inside of the vessel as the necessities of the case required. After the vessel had been 
largely molded with the help of the two simple tools, she discarded them entirely and, 
turning it over on the bottom, she completed the rim and finished it with her bare 
hands, 
Tur So-CALLED GARDEN OR DomIcILIARY Mounpbs 
The small flat mounds beginning in the Iron Mountain neighbor- 
hood in Missouri, and extending southward into Texas and Louisiana, 
are inexplicable in our present state of knowledge. Speaking now 
alIn The Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 1x, 156. 
