Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/254

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244
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ished inside near the top, but lower, circular striæ are to be seen. The stem is rather thick; the upper surface is made up of two sloping planes, and there is a narrow groove running from the bowl to the end. Measured on the outside, the bowl is two inches high; the stem is about a fourth of an inch longer. Several quite similar pipes have been found on both sides of the lake. A simpler though well-made pipe is that given in Fig. 9. It is not so perfectly polished as the preceding, and is one of the more common sort.

It is well known that no material was so highly valued for making pipes as the famous red pipestone. If the calumet had any ceremonial significance in itself, as it certainly had, this became doubly great if the pipe were made of the red stone. This

Fig. 10.

material was regarded as the petrified flesh of ancestors and was revered accordingly, and the single quarry where it could be obtained was a very sacred place. We often find this red pipestone mentioned by early writers, and it is strange that specimens made of it are not more often discovered, but they seem to be very rare everywhere, except, of course, those made in recent times.

The single specimen that has been found in the Champlain Valley was thrown out by the plow a dozen miles south of Burlington, and is shown in Fig. 10. It is made of the ordinary dark red catlinite, and has the form given in the figure. It is larger than most of our pipes, the stem being rather more than three inches long and the bowl about two inches and a quarter high. The cavity of the bowl is peculiarly excavated, as it is