590 Aboriginal Quarries—Soapstone Bowls and the (June, 
be hoped that finished specimens will be discovered, for we know 
they were made, and it is singular they have not been found. 
Soapstone bowls are heavy, rough, take up much space, and be- 
cause of their great weight are often left behind by field parties. 
I have found four or five small pieces of soapstone vessels several 
miles from any known working place, or vein of the stone, and 
invariably these small pieces show tool marks finer than any that 
we have as yet discovered in the quarries; some even are 
smoothed; and pieces have been found with rough attempts at 
ornamentation. Judging from the number of working places or 
quarries, and the numbers of broken vessels occurring in them 
soapstone must have been extensively used; this use, however 
must have been confined within comparatively contracted limits, 
because of the great weight of the material, unless when near 
water transportation. 
In Maryland, so far as I have observed, the process of making 
soapstone vessels in quarries, the “pot-forms” seem to have been 
first taken from the living rock, in a block of a suitable size for the 
desired vessel. This form or block was obtained by picking 4 
groove on the bed rock and deepening this groove to the desired 
depth, when it was wedged loose after being cut under as far as 
possible. The outer lines of the intended dish were then cut on 
the form which was as yet as solid as it was when detached Peis 
the quarry rock, and this cutting was done with a bladed imple 
ment. These outside strokes of the tool are almost as bold as ! 
they had been given with an implement of metal, often a 
three inches or more in length being taken from the bowl at 
stroke. Almost all the bowls show this cutting process t° = 
been followed and not the pecking or picking so often descr! to 
as the manner of forming the bowl on bed rock. The oo 
these dishes as a rule do not show the same bold stroke 
generally find on the body of the bowl, and this I imagine to” 
because the handles would probably be injured by ay | 
severe usage, they were cut more delicately, aud generally 
finer tool marks. eon 
After the outer shape was thus given the bowl, = we 
of the vessel was commenced, and here we find picking 43° 
have been resorted to as when the outer form was first 7 Jð yes- 
bed rock ; first a groove just inside the rim of the ere 
sel was formed by pecking with a sharp-pointed- teal, 
, 
