ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



295 



all formed by hammering, but the execution is very 

 good ; plates of mica are found cut into scrolls and 

 circles ; the pottery, of which very few remains have 

 been found, is far superior to that of any of the Indian 

 tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion that it must have 

 been formed on a wheel, as it is often of uniform thick- 

 ness throughout (sometimes not more than one-sixth of 

 an inch), polished, and ornamented with scrolls and 

 figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief. But the 

 most instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, 

 representing not only various easily recognizable ani- 

 mals, but also human heads, so well executed that they 

 appear to be portraits. Among the animals, not only 

 are such native forms as the panther, bear, otter, wolf, 

 beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, 

 and many others well represented, but also the manatee, 

 which perhaps then ascended the Mississippi as it now 

 does the Amazon, and the toucan, which could hardly 

 have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The sculptured 

 heads are especially remarkable, because they present to 

 us the features of an intellectual and civilised people. 

 The nose in some is perfectly straight, and neither 

 prominent nor dilated; the mouth is small, and the 

 lips thin ; the chin and upper lip are short, contrasting 

 with the ponderous jaw of the modern Indian, while 

 the cheek-bones present no marked prominence. Other 

 examples have the nose somewhat projecting at the apex 

 in a manner quite unlike the features of any American 

 indigenes ; and although there are some which show a 

 much coarser face, it is very difiicult to see in an}^ of 



in several of the mounds of Ohio. (Foster's Prehistoric Races of the United 

 States, 1873, pp. 225-229.) 



