[3] Pottery has been found in aboriginal mounds in Oregon within a few years past.—Foster’s Pre-Historic Races of the United States, I, 152. The first vessels of pottery among the Aborigines of the United States seem to have been made in baskets of rushes or willows used as moulds which were burned off after the vessel hardened.—Jones’s Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 461. Prof. Rau’s article on Pottery. Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 352.
[4] Early History of Mankind, p. 181; Pre-Historic Times, pp. 437, 441, 462, 477, 533, 542.
[5] Lewis and Clarke (1805) found plank in use in houses among the tribes of the Columbia River.—Travels, Longman’s Ed., 1814, p. 503. Mr. John Keast Lord found “cedar plank chipped from the solid tree with chisels and hatchets made of stone,” in Indian houses on Vancouver’s Island.—Naturalist in British Columbia, I, 169.
[6] Tylor’s Early History of Mankind, p. 265, et seq.
[7] Geological Survey of Indiana, 1873, p. 119. He gives the following analysis: Ancient Pottery, “Bone Bank,” Posey Co., Indiana.
| Moisture at 212° F., | 1.00 |
| Silica, | 36.00 |
| Carbonate of Lime, | 25.50 |
| Carbonate of Magnesia, | 3.02 |
| Alumina, | 5.00 |
| Peroxide of Iron, | 5.50 |
| Sulphuric Acid, | .20 |
| Organic Matter (alkalies and loss), | 23.60 |
| ——— | |
| 100.00 |
[8] History of the American Indians, Lond. ed., 1775, p. 424. The Iroquois affirm that in ancient times their forefathers cured their pottery before a fire.
Necdum res igni scibant tractare, nec uti
Pellibus, et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum: