1 882.] Mound Pipes. 267 



The bowls of most of the pipes are carved in miniature figures of 

 animals, birds, reptiles, etc. All of them are executed with strict 

 fidelity to nature, and with exquisite skill." 1 With the exception 

 of this large deposit of these objects, comparatively few of them 

 have been brought to light; yet a number of them are scattered 

 through public and private museums in the United States and 

 Europe, some of which will be described hereafter. It is a mat- 

 ter for sincere regret that the greater portion of the original col- 

 lection of Dr. E. H. Davis was sold to the Blackmore Museum 

 at Salisbury, England, some years ago. In the Museum of Nat- 

 ural History in New York City, however, thirteen of the original 

 specimens, formerly owned by Mr. E. G. Squier, may yet be seen, 

 including the remarkable example represented in Fig. 142 on 

 page 244 of Ancient Monuments. In the magnificent collection 

 of pipes recently owned by Mr. William Bragge, F.S.A., 

 of Birmingham, England, are three broken bird-shaped pipes 

 from " Mound City," Ohio. A set of casts of the entire Squier 

 and Davis collection is preserved in the National Museum at 

 Washington. Amongst the pipes of the original series were a 

 number supposed to represent animals not indigenous to the Uni- 

 ted States. Seven representations of the lamantin, or sea-cow, 

 were found in the mounds, three of which were nearly perfect. 

 "The sculptures of the manatus," remark the explorers, " are too 

 exact to have been the production of those who were not well 

 acquainted with the animal and its habits." 2 Though frequenting 

 the mouths of tropical rivers, the " big beaver," as the Florida 

 Indians called this curious animal, has been found within the 

 boundaries of the United States. Bartram states that it occurs in 

 Florida, in a spring a few miles below Tallahassee. 3 The manati 

 are comprised in three or four species, two of which are found in 

 the Gulf of Mexico. The more northern species (Manatus lati- 

 rostris) is found in 25 N. lat., and Harlan states that during the 

 first quarter of the present century it was so abundant near the 

 capes of Eastern Florida that one Indian sometimes captured ten 

 or twelve specimens with a harpoon in a single season. 4 This 

 species, which sometimes attains to a length of fifteen or twenty 

 feet, bears a striking resemblance to the smaller M. senegalensis of 



