In the ash pits can be found specimens showing the masterpieces of art wrought in stone, bone and shell, representing the civilization which at one time inhabited this village. Of the bone implements, the needle, made from the bones of the deer and elk is most beautiful in design, at the same time showing the skill displayed in the manufacture of the implements. Some of them are upward of nine inches in length. Of the bone specimens perhaps the bead is the commonest. In some pits more than two hundred have been taken out. In these ash pits were also found well wrought specimens of aboriginal fish hooks, also specimens showing the various stages of manufacture of this implement, which differs somewhat from the manufacture of those found at Madisonville, a full account of which appears in the 20th Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, in which he fully describes the manufacture of the fish hooks found in the prehistoric village site. In no instance was an unfinished specimen found in the Baum Village which would, in any way, show that a hole was first bored through the bone and the fish hook then wrought from this hole as was shown by Prof. Putnam; on the contrary a piece of bone was selected and cut into shape representing a small tablet of bone two and one-half inches long by from one-half to three-quarters of an inch broad, with rounded edges at the ends. The center was then cut out by rubbing with a stone on each side. So that two fish hooks were made instead of one from the single piece of bone. A great many perfect scrapers made from the metacarpal bone of the deer and elk were also found, while almost every pit would contain from one to four broken halves of these scrapers. Specimens were also procured showing the various stages in the manufacture of this implement which resemble very much in every particular those found at Madisonville, and also those found at the village site at Fort Ancient.
The pottery fragments found in these ash pits resemble those found at Madisonville, in the ornamentation by incised lines, implement indentations arranged in figures, and handles ornamented with effigies of birds and animals. Of the shell implements, perhaps the most common is the shell hoe, which is made from the mussel shell Unio plicatus.
A great number of beads, from one-half to one inch in diameter, made from mussel shells and perforated with from one to three holes, are found. The large gorgets from two to two and one-half inches in diameter are also found. These are invariably perforated with from one to three holes, and are made from a shell foreign to the Paint Creek Valley.
Of the implements and ornaments made of stone, the flint arrow heads are very common. These are mostly made from material brought from flint ridge in Licking County. Grooved axes are also found, the type prevailing is the one having the groove extend entirely around. The perforated gorgets of slate are also found, but the most interesting of the stone implements found in the pits are the perforated discoidals. These are all small, varying in diameter from two to three inches, and finely polished.
In the refuse heaps and ash pits were found the bones of the animals used for food, charred corn, hickory nuts, walnuts, butter nuts, acorns, hazel nuts, beans, seeds of the papaw, wild plum, etc. About thirty-five per cent. of the bones taken from these pits were of the Virginia deer. The bones of the black bear, raccoon, elk, ground-hog, wild-cat, muskrat, squirrel, beaver, wild turkey, wild duck, wild goose, trumpeter swan, great horn owl, barred owl, were found in abundance. But perhaps the most interesting of the animal bones found were those of the Indian dog. Skulls and parts of skeletons were taken from the pits in great numbers. Professor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, who has been making a study of the skulls of the dog taken from the mounds and burial places of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, and from the great shell heaps in Maine, says that a distinct variety or species of dog was distributed over North America in pre-Columbian times, and by comparison he finds that the dog found in America is the same variety of dog found in the ancient site of the Swiss Lake dwellers, and also in the ancient tombs of Thebes in Egypt, and claims that the variety of the pre-Columbian dog is apparently identical with the pure breed Scotch collie of today, while Mr. F. A. Lucas, of the U. S. National Museum, describes the dog found in the Baum Village as resembling very much the bull terrier in size and proportion, and states that the same species have been found in the village sites in Texas and the old Puebloes.
A FOLIICOLOUS FORM OF SORGHUM SMUT AND NOTES
ON INFECTION EXPERIMENTS.
W. A. Kellerman.
([Plate 2].)
On January 1st, 1900, several pots in the Botanical greenhouse of the Ohio State University were planted to sorghum, Kaffir corn, maize, sweet-corn and pop-corn. The seeds were previously moistened and mixed with a large quantity of head-smut of sorghum taken from smutted sorghum plants also from maize infected with the same fungus. This species was named Ustilago reiliana by Kühn in 1868 from specimens collected in Egypt.
The plants developed rapidly and normally, though the stems were slender and did not reach the normal height. The panicles appeared early and only in a comparatively few cases showed infection.
In one case an anomalous specimen appeared, namely, a sweet corn plant with the upper leaves as well as the panicle infected. This form therefore differs from the type in being in part foliicolous and may be designated as Ustilago (Cintractia[[2]]) reiliana forma foliicola nov. for. Figures 1 and 2, [Plate 2], show the appearance of the infected plant, the one representing an earlier and the other a later stage of the emergence of the smut mass.
[2]. Mr. G. P. Clinton regards this fungus as a Cintractia rather than an Ustilago.