76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



rivers. They have never acquired the art of making- earthen pot- 

 tery, nor have the wandering- tribes in the north of Canada ever 

 done so. In fact, the Canadian Indians do not appear to have used 

 earthenware in early days, with the exception of the allied Hurons 

 and Petuns, the Neutrals and the Iroquois of the St Lawrence, all 

 of these being of one family. At Hochelaga or Montreal^ the prim- 

 itive Mohawks made the same types of vessels and pipes before their 

 flight, that they afterwards did in New York. Similar forms appear 

 in the earthworks north of the St Lawrence, and not far from Pres- 

 cott. The nomadic tribes, however, preferred vessels of bark, easily 

 carried but not easily broken. In these they heated water with hot 

 stones, as the Iroquois may sometimes have done. Mr Frank H. 

 Cushing suggests that the angular forms of many Iroquois vessels 

 may have come from the bark originals of their earlier days. Even 

 now they make many large and convenient vessels of bark, which 

 may be seen in their New York homes. 



In his paper on Ancient pottery of the Mississippi valley, Mr W. H. 

 Holmes easily distinguished three great groups in the region 

 lying around that river, with earthenware dififering in form and 

 ornaments. In speaking of these groups he said, ' The ware of the 

 north is wholly distinct, and need never be confounded with the 

 other groups.' In that valley he placed this group from Iowa 

 inclusive, northward. He said also, and our experience confirms 

 this, that the pottery of Manitoba ' has decided relationships with 

 the ware of the eastern and northeastern states.' The nations in 

 this northern group made a dark paste, tempered with sand, often 

 granitic, and the forms were simple, the ornaments being unlike 

 those of the south. This ornamentation ' consists of cord impres- 

 sions, incised lines, and implement indentations, arranged in figures 

 peculiar to the district.' This is so marked as to- suggest a com- 

 munity of origin. In the paper mentioned, a vessel from Wiscon- 

 sin is like frequent forms in New York. Pottery found in Penn- 

 sylvania and New Jersey has similar forms and ornaments of the 

 simpler kinds, and this is true of a few examples farther south. 

 Even the Pueblos afiford fragments with the incised lines and pat- 

 terns found here, but these are not the prevailing style. 



