AND BLACK RIVERS, ARKANSAS. 259 
since in no-instance in the digging done by us along the St. Francis was any object 
found in any way indicating intercourse with Europeans. The St. Francis appears 
to have been peculiarly secluded. Thomas Ashe,’ who traveled down the Missis- 
sippi so late as 1806, says of the St. Francis, “ Near its confluence with the Missis- 
sippi, it is subject to inundations but toward the head of its navigation it has high 
and fertile banks, which are thickly occupied by Indian nations, of whom nothing 
is known, as there are no white settlers among them, and as they have never been 
visited by any person disposed to discover their character and history.” 
Aboriginal burials in the St. Francis region usually had been made extended 
on the back, and, with the exception of pottery, but little had been placed with 
them, though there were many exceptions to this rule. 
Several instances of cremation of human remains were found by us along the 
river, and there was one instance of cremated human bones deposited in a vessel 
of earthenware. 
The St. Francis valley forms part of the Middle Mississippi region, which 
region is defined by Holmes’ as follows: 
“Тһе geographic distribution of the ware of this group naturally receives first 
consideration. Apparently its greatest and most striking development centers about 
the contiguous portions of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee." 
The aboriginal pottery of this Middle Mississippi region is more abundant than 
is that of any other part of the United States, and this pottery probably has been 
more fully described and figured than has the ware from any other portion of our 
country. 
The St. Francis valley has yielded more examples of its ware than has any 
equal area in the United States, and while this pottery has shared in the full 
description which has been accorded the earthenware of the region to which it 
belongs, and while we can hope to shed but little new light upon the pottery itself, 
we shall try to describe in this report the conditions under which the vessels were 
placed with the dead and the burial customs of the aborigines who made the vessels, 
details which former seekers of aboriginal remains along the St. Francis have failed 
to make public. | 
As the St. Francis (with the possible exception of the Mississippi, а river very 
many times the length of the St. Francis) long has had the reputation of being 
richer in aboriginal earthenware than is any other river in the United States, the 
territory through which the river passes has been for years the headquarters for 
collectors and for persons wishing to make a livelihood or to increase their means 
by the sale of Indian pottery, and these individuals have worked for long periods 
and with indefatigable zeal. Moreover, vast numbers of vessels have been destroyed 
along the St. Francis in the process of cultivation of the cemeteries in which they 
lay, while others have been dug out or have been shattered in the digging by 
1 “Travels in America.” London, 1809, p. 273. 
? William Н. Holmes. “Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States.” 20th An. Кер. Bur. 
Am. Ethn., p. 80. 
