the former were unskilled in navigation, the latter were, on the contrary, most noteworthy voyagers in canoes, had some silver, more pearls, and abundant copper. Being such expert navigators in canoes, the enormous size of which astonished the Spanish adventurers and was known even to the far-away Pueblos, could they not well have visited southern peoples and given to them, quite as likely as taken from them, art forms?

The art of the mound-builders is in many details quite as like that of the Northwest coast as it is like that of the South. In other points the similarity is greater, that is, more general, as the clay trenchers (which are obvious survivals of wooden trenchers extremely like those of the Northwest coast) and numerous incised bone tubes will bear witness. Moreover, this resemb

lance in works of art is nowhere more pronounced, especially in technique, than in the native cop-. per work undoubtedly pre-historic as an art-of the extreme North-West as compared with that of the Mound-Builders. How is this to be explained? By the theory of independent development, which is probable; or by a theory of common derivation or descent - alike of some of the Mexican peoples (down the Western coast) and of some of the Mound-Builder peoples down the great chain of lakes from Alaska to Lake Superior itself-which is only possible? Yet there are considerations of import in answer to this question, but they belong even less to an experimental study of primitive copper-working than does the latter or analytic half of this paper.

THE HE only extensive remains that we have of the aborigines who once inhabited the Gulf coast are the shell banks or shell mounds that are so numerous at Pascagoula and vicinity ranging everywhere from the size of a tub to the once gigantic heap of Bayou Codou, Ala. Nearly the whole river front of the town of Scranton, Miss., is a series of shell banks varying in thickness from six inches to ten feet or more and from five to fifty feet wide.

Some idea of the antiquity of these heaps may be obtained from the live oaks (quercus vireus), measuring from four to five feet

in diameter, growing upon them. These heaps are composed almost entirely of clam shells; very few oyster shells are found upon them except near the surface, though at times we find a sprinkling of oyster shells at the bottom of the heaps as an exception.

That these heaps are mere refuse piles or heaps of debris thrown out before or around the wigwam door is evident from the large quantities of bones of fish and various animals besides parts of charred wood that are found in them.

Often when excavating shell heaps I have found bunches of shells that have been burnt into

lime, with fragments of burnt wood, broken pots, pieces of charcoal mingled with the bones, and scales of fish showing that the savages had here built their campfires and feasted off the game that they had caught. But these heaps were sometimes used for burial purposes.

One of the heaps on the Pascagoula river front that now serves the useful purpose of a vegetable garden was once an aboriginal cemetery, as is evident from the large quantity of human skulls and bones that have been found in it. Out of this same heap were taken a large number of small images of burnt clay and stone, some of them bearing a striking resemblance to the pictures we see in magazines of the Egyptian mummies. There were also found some pieces of flint that the savage artist had endeavored to carve into a human likeness, but had left his work unfinished. With them were pots, pipes and arrow-heads of flint and basalt.

Early in the summer of 1889 Messrs. Hunter, Benn & Co. opened one of these banks on the river for the purpose of laying the foundation of a saw-mill. In the work they uprooted a live oak tree some two feet in diameter, and underneath its roots was found the skeleton of a woman, or a youth, with some pots that were broken by the picks of the workman. Owing to the fact that the body was near the surface and that no precautions were taken (such as were usual with the aborigines, to prevent the removal of the dead) I am of the opinion that this body, as also those found in the garden cemetery aforesaid, was hastily buried.

I am strengthened in this opinion by reading M. D'Ibervill's Journal that on his visit to Pascagoula, July 1700, he found the place deserted, but on sailing farther up the river, he found two old Indians who told him that the people had all been exterminated by a pestilence. Be this as it may, it is a significant fact that simultaneously with the opening of this shell bank an epidemic of typhoid malaria broke out in the town of Scranton and continued with unabated rigor during the entire summer and fall. At no other time during the fifteen years that I have lived here has the town received such a visitation.

I have taken from the shell banks of Pascagoula fragments of burnt pottery that had the basket markings, showing that the maker had made the pot in a basket which he had then burned away. I also found one huge fragment of a bowl that had a beautiful incised scroll mark like the specimens found in in the mounds near Charlston, Mo. (65,501 Smithsonian collection, Ethnological Report, 1881, page 503, figure 1889). Mr. H. E. Richardson, of this place, gave me a fragment of a pot that he found near the mouth of the Pascagoula river containing an incised carving of the head of a jay bird with tuft erect. The workmanship on the fragment is so artistic, and shows such a correct knowledge of form that I doubt if it can be the work of any of the tribes that inhabited Pascagoula. I am inclined to think that it came from further south. All of the above articles I have deposited in the Smithsonian Institution. About one mile from

Scranton on Krebs' lake is a shell heap that covers about of an acre. It is said that its summit is twenty-two feet above low water mark, but I think it less. On it stands the old fort built by the French emigrants under De La Point in 1711. From this heap I have taken pieces of pottery that contain minute fragments of shells. On showing them to Dr. Hinsdale he told me that there was a deposit of this kind of clay near Point Caddy, Biloxi. From these the tribes of the Pascagoula must have obtained this pottery, as no such deposit of clay is known anywhere in the neighborhood of Pascagoula. The most interesting of all the shell banks that I have observed in the neighborhood is the one at West Pascagoula. This is a large wall or mole that intersects a marsh on the banks of the West Pascagoula river. It is one hundred and twenty paces long by twenty to fifty wide and four feet in hight. What motive the aborigines had in building this mole into the water (the marsh is of recent formation) unless it was to make a convenient landing place for their canoes I cannot imagine. That it was not a mere accumulation of debris, I think, is evident, as it is built straight into the water running with perhaps a slight variation due east and west.

This wall, like the banks of East Pascagoula and on Krebs' lake, is composed almost entirely of clam shells of a small species, none of them being larger than a silver dollar. At the mouth of East Pascagoula river is a large shell-heap which is, unlike the heaps higher up the river, and at

West Pascagoula, composed of oyster shells. Here an interesting fact is presented. Clams are seldom found on the reefs of Pascagoula, though oysters exist in inexhaustible quantities.

Hasty generalization in science, as all things else, should be avoided, yet the conclusion forces its self upon me that those made from clam shells are much the oldest; and that clams began to disappear from our waters before the oyster became a permanent resident. This last mentioned heap is situated on a small point of land that juts out in the Pascagoula river. This point has only within my own recollection became connected with the main land by the sand and debris that has been washed up by the sea. In several places where I have excavated this heap, I have found it resting on a sandy beach beneath the low water mark. That this is a refuse heap is evident from its irregular size and shape, and the fragments of bones and pottery and burnt wood that I have taken from it. D'Iberville, in his Journal, tells us that on his visit to Pascagoula in July 1700, he found a fort situated at the mouth of the river. I am satisfied from careful observation that this heap is the location of D'Iberville's fort. There is one other heap that I will call attention to, and then bring this paper to a close. Between East and West Pascagoula rivers (about three miles apart here) there is a vast extent of salt marsh, intersected by lakes and bayous, the whole covering some 30,000 acres. About the centre of the marsh is a small shell heap probably fifty feet in diameter, and four or five

feet above the level of the tide. The curiosity of this heap is, that there is no land within less than a mile and a half, though there are similar heaps within half a mile of this one. All of them are covered with a heavy growth of candleberry myrtle and Span ish bayonet. The U. S. geodetic survey of eighty years ago, shows that where now is a large extent of marsh was only the real estuary of the Pascagoula. Such being the case, it is clear that these heaps, as also the one I have mentioned as being at the mouth of the Pascagoula, were built in shallow water upon sand bars. I am of the opinion that where these heaps now are, some of the aborigines had their habi

tations built on pilings and these heaps are mere piles or debris that were accumulated round and under the dwellings. I cannot assign any reason for their building over the water. The existence of arrow-heads of flint and basalt in the heaps, is sufficient evidence that the aboriginal inhabitants of the Gulf coast carried on a commerce with the more Northern tribes. If we except the small pebbles that are only found in heaps of drift some thirty-five miles north of Pascagoula, no flint or basalt exists in this neighborhood. I do not think that such materials can be found nearer than the Tennessee mountains.

IN N Boone county, one and one

half miles Southeast of Columbia, in section 19, township 48, range 12 West, is a peculiar mound, which with three others, is situated on the verge of a cliff, about two hundred yards below the bridge, on the Ashland road, over Hinkson creek. The largest of these mounds is fifty feet in diameter and four and one-half feet in altitude, and is covered with small trees.

Under a thin covering of soil was a layer of flat stones which bore no marks of fire. Beneath these stones occurred three feet of burnt clay, which, from all indications, had remained undisturbed until the mound was explored in 1893. In my collection are two pieces of this burnt clay, each being as large as a man's

head. At the original surface of the ground, a few bone fragments were found, but there were no traces of pottery.

The peculiarity of this mound is, that excepting the layer of stone, it is composed almost entirely of burnt clay. Of this group the mound described is the only one worthy of mention; the others being the ordinary round mounds of this locality.

Two miles Southwest of Columbia, in the Southeast corner of section 22, township 48, range 13 West, occurs a solitary mound, situated on a high bluff overlooking Hinkson creek. This mound is forty-eight feet in diameter and four feet in height.

In August 1893, in the presence of Prof. G. C. Broadhead, this mound was thoroughly excavated.

Bones were uncovered at the first shovelful, and from the top of the mound to the original surface of the ground, there was a mass of bones, etc., in the utmost confusion. Some of the bones had been very badly gnawed. Near the North side of the wall was found a greenstone celt, finely polished, and bearing evidence of much usage. Near the east side occurred the remains of three earthenware vessels. The fragments of one of these vessels were so intermixed with the skull bones of a child as to make one believe that the pot was placed over the child's head at the time of burial. Near the west wall were found three pipes, both valves of a large mussel shell, and fragments of an ornamented earthenware vessel. Two of these pipes are in my possession; the other, together with the above mentioned celt, belongs to Prof. Broadhead.

Throughout the mound occurred little pockets of burnt clay containing fragments of bone.

The wall in this mound was compactly built of flat stones; was three feet high; and the enclosed space was an irregular quadrangle in shape; three of the sides being eight feet in length, the other, nine feet. No regard was paid to the points of the compass.

In the Northeast corner of section 5, township 48, range 13 West, one mile Northeast of the bridge, across Perche creek, on the Rocheport road, on some land belonging to Robert Ravenscraft, are two large mounds, each sixty feet in diameter and seven and one-half feet high. These mounds are one hundred feet apart and occupy a North and South line.