Another copper implement is in the possession of our Society, 

 which was found buried in the earth 100 miles west of Red 

 River. 



All these, I take it, were made from copper obtained from 

 Isle Royale on Lake Superior. 



-t. Shell Ornaments. Traces are found in the mound, of the 

 fact that the decorative taste, no doubt developed in all ages, 

 and in all climes, was possessed by the Takawgamis. 



((a) Sea Shells. Important as pointing to the home and 

 trading centres of the Mound Builders is the presence among 

 the debris of the mound, of sea shells. We have three speci- 

 mens found in the Grand Mound. Two of them seem to be- 

 long to the genus Natica, the other to Marginella. They have 

 all been cut or ground down on the side of the opening of the 

 shell, so that two holes permit the passage of a string, by which 

 the beads thus made are strung together. The fact that the 

 genera to which the shells belong are found in the sea, as well 

 as their highly polished surface, show these to be marine ; and 

 not only so but from the tropical seas, either we suppose from 

 the Gulf of Mexico or from the Californian coast. 



(b) Fresh Water Shells. In all the mounds yet opened, 

 examples of the Unio, or River Mussel, commonly known as 

 the clam, have been found. They are usually polished, cut into 

 symmetrical shapes, and have holes bored in them. We have 

 one which was no doubt used as a breast ornament, and was 

 hung by a string around the neck. In the bottom of a nearly 

 complete pottery cup, found in the Grand Mound, which went 

 to pieces as we took it out, there was lying a polished clam 

 shell. The clam still abounds on Rainy River. Six miles 

 above the mound, we saw gathered together by an industrious 

 housewife hundreds of the same species of clam, whose shells 

 she was in the habit of pulverizing for the benefit of her 

 poultry. 



5. Pottery, (a) Broken. It seems to be a feature of every 

 mound that has been opened that fragments of pottery have 

 been unearthed. The Society has in its possession remains 

 of twenty or thirty pottery vessels. They are shown to be por- 

 tions of different pots, by their variety of marking. The pot- 

 tery is of a coarse sort, seemingly made by hand and not upon 

 a wheel, and then baked. The markings were made upon the 

 soft clay, evidently with a sharp instrument, or sometimes with 

 the finger nail. Some pieces are found hard and well pre- 

 served ; others are rapidly disintegrating. As stated already, 

 in the Grand Mound a vessel some five inches in diameter was 

 dug up by one of the workers, filled with earth, which though 



