Fig. 506. (S. 1–4.) Soapstone dish. From the Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.
Fig. 507. (S. 1–9.) From the collection of G. B. Abbott, Corning, California.
In the East and the South we have steatite or soapstone mortars, cooking-pots, dishes, bowls, and sometimes dippers. Most of the larger museums have examples of these and particularly in highly finished stone dishes. Fig. 505 is a large, thin stone dish from the Peabody Museum, Salem, which was found near Lynn. Fig. 508 presents four soapstone dishes, two of them dipper-like in form. The three upper ones are finished and polished, while the lower specimen has been pecked into shape but not polished.
Fig. 508. (S. about 1–5.) Soapstone bowls. Collection of Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The quarries from which these dishes are obtained are found in New England, in the Potomac region, and in the South. Professor Holmes made them the subject of study. It seems that the natives worked around the mass they wished to remove and shaped it in situ, cutting a deep trench entirely around it, and when the dish had been brought into high relief, they cut away the narrow base and removed it. Numbers of unfinished dishes in position in the original ledge have been reported.
Fig. 509. (S. 1–6.) A portion of the collection of J. G. Crawford, Albany, Oregon. The peculiar objects above the central mortar are interesting. Similar ones have been found in the far Northwest. The purpose of such is at present a mystery. These were found in various portions of Oregon, not far above the mouth of the Columbia River.