. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . of both animal andhuman visits to the spot. Mastodon buffalo, deer, and other bones; Indian hatchets,arrow-heads, and rush baskets, but above all an incredible quantity of pottery frag-ments which have been extracted from the pits. The pottery fragments form atsome points veritable strata 3 to 6 inches thick; this is especially the case where M. Avery found what appeared to have been a furnace for baking the ware(a process very imperfectly performed), and near it three pots of successive sizes,inside of each oth
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . of both animal andhuman visits to the spot. Mastodon buffalo, deer, and other bones; Indian hatchets,arrow-heads, and rush baskets, but above all an incredible quantity of pottery frag-ments which have been extracted from the pits. The pottery fragments form atsome points veritable strata 3 to 6 inches thick; this is especially the case where M. Avery found what appeared to have been a furnace for baking the ware(a process very imperfectly performed), and near it three pots of successive sizes,inside of each other. The pots must be presumed to have subserved the purpose ofsalt-boiling; for although human handiwork has been found so close to the surfaceof the salt as to render it probable that its existence in mass was once known, yet theboiling process alone has been resorted to within even traditional times until thediscovery, at the bottom of a salt well, of the solid rock-salt. Smithsonian Eeport, 1884, pp. 5J91-306. Report of National Museum, 1 888.—Wilson. Plate Ancient Indian Petit Anse Island, near Vermillion Bay, Louisiana. Presented by J. F. Cleu, 1866. (Cat. , U. S. N. M.) ANCIENT INDIAN MATTING. 675 With a foot-note thus: It is very positively stated that mastodon bones were found considerably abovesome of the human relics. In a detrital mass, however, this can not be considered acrucial test. The discovery or finding of this piece of matting by Mr. Cleu in theposition indicated, to wit, above the rock-salt, but beneath the fossilbones, tusks, etc., of the elephant or mastodon may be conceded. Thereseems to have been nothing strange or suspicious in such a finding it in the detrital mass, as reported by Professor Hilgard,robs it of all weight as evidence of the antiquity of man. The surfaceor top of the solid body of rock-salt appears to have been somewhatirregular, to have conformed generally to the surface of the earth aboveit, t
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