INDIAN POTTERY. 



349 



in some fragments the latter still retains its original brightness. Only one 

 color, however, was used in the painting of each article. It is evident that the 

 coloring preceded the process of baking, and the surfaces thus coated are smooth 

 and shining, the paint replacing to a certain extent the enamel produced by 

 glazing. - , 



That the aboriginal potters on the Cahokia creek did not neglect the decorative 

 art in their manufactures, is shown by the ornamental lines traced on the surface of 

 their crockery. Tlie simplest form of ornamentation consists in straight lines run- 

 ning around the vessel parallel to the rim ; but they employed also other combi- 

 nations of lines, of which figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 are examples. In some instances 



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the?«6f/(/e only was ornamented. The lines are mostly drawn with great regularity, 

 and sometimes one-eighth of an inch wide, with a corresponding depth. I obtained, 

 however, from the deposit at the Cahokia creek one small fragment, which ex- 

 hibits a much higher degree of skill in the art of decoration than any of the others 







found at the same place. Figure 9 represents it in full 

 size. This specimen is about three-sixteenths of an 

 inch thick, and consists of clay with an admixtxire of 

 pulverized granite, the components of which — quartz, 

 feldspar, and mica — can be plainly distinguished in 

 the fracture. It is well baked and of a light-gray 

 color. The ornamental lines and notches are im- 

 pressed, or, perhaps, scooped out, with the greatest 

 accuracy, and the vessel, when complete, must have 

 presented a very good specimen of aboriginal ceramic 

 art. Whoever compares the annexed drawing with 

 Fig. 5 on Plate 46 of the " Ancient Monuments of the 

 Mississippi Valley," by Squier and Davis, will find 

 that the originals of the representations are nearly alike in point of ornamenta- 

 tion. The latter drawing delineates a part of a vase found in one of the an- 

 cient mounds of Ohio. Having seen the best specimens of " mound " pottery 

 obtained during the survey of Messrs. Squier and Davis, I do not hesitate to 

 assert that the clay vessels fabricated at the Cahokia creek were in every re- 

 spect equal to those exhumed from the mounds of the Mississippi valley, and 

 Dr. Davis himself, who examined my specimens from the first-named locality, 

 expressed the same opinion. 



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