Miscellanies. 175 



Some of the arguments of Mr. G. to show the fitness of the scheme 

 to relieve the suffering population of Great Britain, and as a remedy 

 for future evils, are cordials to a British public ; and in estimating the 

 favorable reception which the plan has met, much must be attributed 

 to this. 



In no other country will the roads admit of elemental locomotion, 

 and no other has such a population to relieve, and to no other are 

 many of the arguments applicable; we think, therefore, the plan will 

 be, at least for a time, limited in its adoption to Great Britain. 



12. Notice of ancient pottery ; in a letter from Dr. John H. Kain 

 to the Editor, dated Trafalgar, Knox County, Tenn., Sept. 26, 1833. 

 Mr. Rich, who will hand you this, will likewise deliver to you a spe- 

 cimen of the ancient crockery, found among the mounds on my farm. 

 A careful examination of them solves a difficulty which has puzzled 

 the antiquarians not a little. Associated with the mounds are found 

 large heaps of shells, of different kinds, but small, and principally 

 such as are found in the neighboring river. A number of these were 

 composed of a small univalve, resembling the conch. The conch is 

 sacred to one of the Hindoo deities, and it was supposed that these 

 shells had been offered to Vishnu, and consequently, that the mounds 

 had been erected by the Hindoos. On inspecting the specimen of 

 pottery which I send, you will perceive that it is coated with small 

 fragments of shells, which must have given the vessel a beautifully 

 white and shining appearance *, and I can suppose they formed arti- 

 cles of furniture, which would not be disdained in the present age of 

 refinement and luxury. I suppose that the banks of shells, instead 

 of being collected as offerings to a heathen deity, w^ere intended to be 

 used in glazing and ornamenting their pottery. I have seen, in West 

 Tennessee, near Columbia, the remains of an ancient furnace, which 

 had been used for baking earthen ware. But I think it probable, 

 that the specimens I send you were never subjected to a very strong 

 heat, which would have decomposed the shells vviih which they are 

 coated. It is probable, that the shells were coarsely pulverized, and 

 dusted over the vessel in its soft state, which was then dried in the 

 sun. This earthen ware abounds in the neighborhood of the ancient 

 mounds, of which your Journal has contained so many notices, and 

 is one of the few monuments left us of a race of people long since 

 extinct. 



