110 EARTHENWARE OF 



posits, no one is better qualified to speak than the explorer, Mr. Moore, who is con- 

 vinced from the consideration of many observations both archseologic and biologic that 

 only the one explanation can be given. Without questioning this conclusion I may 

 venture to offer the following points for consideration : (1) It seems that deposits 

 of this class may have been made by tribes not using pottery, although surrounded 

 by pottery-making peoples ; (2) that the shell fishers concerned may have been pot- 

 tery makers but not practising the art on the fishing grounds, and (3) that vessels 

 may have been made for temporary use on the fishing sites of such inferior quality 

 as to disintegrate and disappear in a brief period. In this connection I would ob- 

 serve that some of the shell utilizing sites in the incipiency of their occupation 

 were probably not well fitted for permanent occupation, and hence but temporarily 

 resorted to. Such conditions of occupation would not encourage the practice there 

 of the ceramic art. 



•Another factor to be considered in this connection is the fact, brought out by 

 my examination of the shell deposits of Maryland and Virginia, that a ruder, 

 coarser variety of ware, comprising mostly large vessels of peculiar shape, finish and 

 decoration, was made for use on the midden sites and confined very generally to 

 these sites, although the same peoples seem to have made much better pottery and 

 of distinct varieties for use elsewhere. 



In many cases articles of European origin have been found in the mounds of 

 Florida, and mound building must have continued for many years after the arrival 

 of Europeans, but numerous mounds of the same class and containing the same native 

 articles yield no foreign relics whatever, and in the great shell mounds and middens 

 such relics are confined to the immediate surface. Ample proofs are found that cen- 

 turies of pottery making preceded the coming of the whites and this fact coupled 

 with that of the absence of pottery in the inferior strata of many of the accumu- 

 lations goes to show that the peninsula had been occupied for a very long period. 



VARIETIES OR GROUPS OF WARE. 



The earthenware of Florida is more than usually diversified in its characters, 

 no other like area within my knowledge yielding an equal number of distinct forms. 

 Convenience of description demands a separation of these wares into a number of 

 groups, but this is as yet a difficult task as the criteria for classification are not well 

 made out. If a single character were sufficient to distinguish a group the work 

 would be simple, but it is generally necessary to consider a number of characters. 

 Thus it is not the use of a particular clay or tempering material, a given range of 

 form or size, a peculiar color or kind of decoration that distinguishes a group, but 

 an assemblage of two or more of these characters in a way distinct from any other 

 assemblage of these characters. 



If we take the earthenware of one culture-province and place it alongside of 

 that of a neighboring province we observe that there are marked and easily recog- 

 nized dissimilarities. The combination of features in the one is unlike the combina- 

 tion in the other although many of the characters in the two groups are alike or re- 



