64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdll. 176 



The central perforations vary from 2 nun. to 3.5 mm. A number of 

 these beads display some iridescence, especially the blue and black 

 varieties, which may have resulted from lying in contact with potash 

 derived from the wood ashes in the site. 



In the white variety there is a wide range both in shape and size, 

 while the color itself was not standardized and shows a range from a 

 dead white through a mild greenish hue that shades off into a very 

 light gray. According to the accompanying chart (fig. 6) all the 

 white beads conform to types a to i and I with the greatest stress 

 being placed on those from a through e. Types a through / were 

 originally parts of slender glass tubes or canes which were segmented 

 mto individual beads and then fire treated to round and smooth off 

 the rough edges resulting from the cutting of the tubes. 



Glass beads were assigned definite trade values by the trader or fur 

 company dealing with a particular group or tribe. This "value" fluc- 

 tuated from locality to locality and from trader to trader. The Hud- 

 son's Bay Company, for instance, established a standard value which 

 was "one made beaver" or the equivalent of 50 cents. The term "made 

 beaver" was applied to a skin that had been processed ready for ship- 

 ment to a tannery through the trader. When an Indian wanted to 

 purchase a certain article in the trader's store he was told how many 

 made beaver skins it would cost him. Two beads known to manufac- 

 turers as "Cornaline d'Aleppo" and to the traders of the North as 

 "Hudson's Bay beads" had an exchange value of six beads for one 

 made beaver. A transparent green bead and one of opaque yellow 

 glass were of the same value. A light-blue bead had a value of three 

 for a skin, and three other varieties two for a skin. A large bead of 

 pale-blue opaque glass was the most expensive in the group, as a trader 

 exacted two skins for it. The smaller beads known as seed beads were 

 sold in "bunches" of five or six strings, each 4 to 6 inches long, accord- 

 ing to the size and kind of beads, and having a weight of four or five 

 bunches to the pound. The value of one bunch of seed beads at Fort 

 McPherson was said to be one beaver. The value of beads outside of 

 the fur trade of the North was not so definitely established (Orchard, 

 1929, pp. 88-89) . 



One thing certain is that all these types were in use during the 

 period between 1820 and 1850, and that some of them are still being 

 sold either on Indian reservations or in nearby towns where Indians 

 make and sell beadwork to tourists and various shops. 



TRADE PIPES 



A fair collection of clay-pipe fragments was recovered from the floor 

 of the upper historic level and in the fill above the floor. Forty-eight 

 stem fragments and nine fragmentary bowls, some with portions of the 



