348 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
portion it slopes outward again to the lip. This curving form 
is not only pleasing to the eye, but protects the upper part, where 
the ware is thinner, from the fierce action of the fire. 
We had observed this curving slope in fragments of aboriginal 
pottery previously collected, and in the first field camp which the 
Society held, viz., the one at Bocabec (1883),* an implement of 
bone was collected which puzzled the members who worked at 
the shell heaps of the Stone Age that are found there, as to its 
use or purpose. The object was sent to Sir Daniel Wilson, then 
the chief Canadian expert in archaeology, who stated that this 
tool was believed to have been used in forming the curve, which 
is found below the rim in these ancient culinary vessels. 
The material of which this pot was made appears to have 
been ordinary fine river sand mixed with clay. Where the force 
of the fire in subsequent use has been strong enough to change 
the color of the pot, the iron in the clay has been sufficient to give 
the ware a brown tint. Elsewhere it remains of a gray color, 
showing that in the original firing it was not subject to intense 
heat, such as is used in the manufacture of modern pottery ; it is, 
therefore, at present tender and easily broken. Also for this 
reason it is not easy to attach broken fragments that evidently 
belong together, and the reconstruction of a pot becomes difficult. 
With such tender ware it was necessary to make up in thick- 
ness what is lacking in cohesive strength, and so the bottom of 
the pot was made quite thick. At the apex (in the bottom of 
the pot) it is 1 Yi inches thick; at three inches from the bottom 
it is yh of an inch thick, and at six inches up it is an inch 
thick ; a little above this it is Y ; and from this to the lip varies 
from Y> to Y\ of an inch in thickness. Thus the greater thick- 
ness of the pot is from the widest part down to the apex, increas- 
ing gradually, while the upper half of the pot is comparatively 
uniform in thickness. 
While the outside of the pot (leaving out the pattern on the 
surface) was quite smooth, the inside shows marks of the potter’s 
hand. These are impressions of the ends of the fingers drawn 
around the pot to form it. These impressions are not quite 
* N. H. S. Bulletin No. Ill, p. 7. 
J 
