528 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



body on the top of a hill is absorbed by the water percolating through the soil,, 

 and in solution penetrates the substance of the bone in vvuich it is deposited, giv- 

 ing rise to smaller or larger black dots and dendritic forms, such as are seen in 

 some of these bones. When there is considerable of this black dotting we know 

 that the bone has been exposed for a considerable time to this slow process. 



"In these graves many objects were placed with the dead, which friends 

 may have thought necessary for their future life. It is curious that while upon 

 the surface of this region immense numbers of stone implements or weapons of 

 good form and finish may be picked up, the stone-grave people seem to have sel- 

 dom buried these with Iheir dead. One celt, a few knives and some chips em- 

 brace all the stone objects brought from the stone graves explored this summer. 



" Food and articles of domestic use, or for personal adornment, make up 

 the list of contents of the graves. The broken bones of animals would seem to 

 indicate that cooked meat was placed in the grave, while the shallow dishes com- 

 mon in these graves probably contained some soft edible, as spoons were often 

 found in them. These spoons were cut from the right valve of the Unio or fresh- 

 water clam, and often the handle was notched or more elaborately ornamented. 

 They are made for use with the right hand. The best pottery of the region is- 

 thin and black ; the most common form is that of the small shallow dishes, notched 

 about the rim, which have just been mentioned. A dish like a ladle, and one 

 like a large cup with a hole on either side just below the rim, for suspension, are 

 duplicated in our former collections from stone graves. The most difficult work 

 of the potter of this region was probably to mould the heads of animals or the hu- 

 man head, as is so commonly done on the upper part of water bottles from this 

 locality. This is similar to the highest order of potter's work among the mound 

 builders of the Ohio Valley, showing a similar stage of development reached by 

 these two peoples, for the potter's art is the key to the attainment in culture of an 

 early people. 



"Many little objects of pottery, images and tiny dishes, are, I believe, the 

 playthings of the children; for whenever I ha-e removed them from a grave, it 

 •has been either from the grave of a child, or if that of an adult, it is one in which 

 a child was buried with the grown person. Coarse pottery in fragments lines 

 many of the graves. In one grave there were large potsherds, to the number of 

 more than thirty. In another grave there were pieces of burnt clay, in which were 

 the impressions of reeds. Here is one pipe of clay, unfortunately somewhat 

 broken. 



" As a rule, pipes are very rare in stone graves, not more than ten having 

 been found ir^ the thousands of graves which I have opened. 



" Many pottery beads were found of the same shape as the commoner shell 

 beads. A single pearl bead, formed by perforating a larger pearl, was found. 

 Near the head of one body lay a long, slender pin of bone. In a grave contain- 

 ing a perfect skeleton were found two fragments of a human cranium, which had 

 been whittled into their present shape and laid in the grave, but for what purpose 

 is unkno'.vn. Though former explorations have brought to. light quite a number 



