Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/596

578 I had the soil removed from one of these depressions, and found marks of long-continued fire in its centre, from which I infer that they are sites of the lodges of these ancient people.

The general character of this portion of the hill-range is precipitous to the north, with a very gradual descent to the south, forming the north slope of the broad and beautiful valley of Eagle Creek, a tributary of the Saline, a valley once cultivated by the prehistoric people that worked the salines, evidenced by the fine specimens of stone agricultural implements turned up by the plough, and most abundant near the earthworks.

I have in my collection, from this locality, four hoes or spades, flaked out of chert or quartzite, most probably from the metamorphic sandstone of the district. They are beautifully wrought, and vary in size from six and a half by three and a half to ten and a half by four and three-quarter inches, and from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in thickness.

On receipt of Mr. Ewbank's letter in 1859, I examined carefully quantities of specimens of pottery, and found the markings on all of them to have been made by woven cloth of twisted threads, and in no single instance by rush or willow baskets. Some of these cloth impressions were of fine texture.

When I considered that a basket of the large size of these salt-kettles, even if made of metallic wire no thicker than the thread impressions, could not possibly be kept in form while being lined with heavy clay, the idea of using any twisted textile fabric for such a purpose seemed absurd. We must, therefore, look for some other explanation of these markings.

They could not be for ornament, or the rough, sharp edge of the projecting rim would have been finished with more care, or where threads had broken, or pieces been torn from the cloth, the defects in the markings would have been repaired.

Some of the threads of the cloth being at right angles to the rim, and gradually becoming oblique or bias, presented the exact appearance which a bandage of cloth would, if tightly bound round a semi-globular bowl.

I imagine these half-civilized people to have been practical utilitarians; and I can see the use of a bandage in holding the moist clay firmly bound while being raised from the mould on which it was formed, and which was essential to prevent cracking as it hardened or dried.

If a bandage was used in this manner and for this purpose, there could probably be found pieces of the pans showing the width of bandage used, also where and how it had been fastened at its union.

Therefore, my first object was to secure all the specimens that I could, also the mould or core on which I believed the pans had been formed. But from the time I collected the specimens sent to Mr. Ewbank and Dr. Davis, it was nine or ten years before I again had an