112 EARTHENWARE OF 



this group exhibit great variety. The bowl was a favorite shape. Sometimes the 

 body was hemispherical and again it was conical. A common form is a deep bowl 

 of graceful outlines with much constricted lip. 



Extemporized Ware. — The explorations of Mr. Moore on the St. John's have 

 brought to light a form of earthenware not heretofore observed in any locality and 

 likely to give rise to considerable discussion. It is found in the sand mounds, gener- 

 ally at no very considerable depth although in some cases as in Mt. Royal it occurs 

 with original burials throughout the mass of the mound. It consists of vessels or 

 pseudo vessels, vessel-like articles, animal figurines, and various objects of eccentric 

 shape all of rude construction and finish. As a rule these objects have the appear- 

 ance of toys made bj* hands unskilled in the manipulation or clay and practically 

 untrammeled by the traditions of native art. 



The clay used was generally crude and untempered, the construction was care- 

 less and hast}' and the baking was slight. The few specimens worthy of being 

 called vessels are so crudely made that they would be of little service in any of the 

 usual offices of a vessel. As a rule the vessel forms were perforated beneath while 

 the clay was yet soft, the opening being left rough as cut or punched or dressed down 

 rudely after the manner of the normal opening at the opposite end. They repeat 

 in a measure the forms of the real pottery but with many trivial variations. 

 Decoration is confined to the most elemental incised and indented figures and re- 

 lieved features. 



The animal forms are rarely so well modelled as to render the idea of the 

 modeller intelligible. The panther, wolf or dog, the squirrel, turkey, turtle, fish, 

 etc., are more or less forcibly suggested. The size is usually small, and the clumsy 

 forms, modelled with the unaided fingers, are solid or nearly so, the more massive 

 portions having been roughly perforated with a stick to prevent cracking and falling 

 to pieces in the process of baking. Vegetal forms are extremely rare in the normal 

 native art of the United States, the gourd appearing in some cases as a model for 

 earthen vessels, but here a number of attempts have been made to represent acorns, 

 flowers, buds, ears of corn and the like. A large number of unclassified forms, 

 equally rude with the preceding resemble cylinders, cones, beads, the hour glass, 

 the druggist's mortar, etc. Seeking among the ceramic products of the United 

 States in our Museums I find occasional examples of small rudely made toj'-like 

 figures, that may possibly fall into the same general class as these Florida 

 figurines. 



The most satisfactory evidence of the close relationship of this pottery with 

 the normal wares of Florida is its occurrence in a number of mounds at considerable 

 depths with original burials and associated intimately with a wide range of relics. 

 Besides this there are many features of the ware that approach in appearance or 

 manner of treatment the ordinary pottery, and we may safely infer that it was made 

 by potters of the later period of occupation for a special purpose not requiring care- 

 ful finish. 



As a rule native art furnishes few examples of trivial work — of objects or uten- 



