Now it so happens that, in the same mound in which the iron specimens before alluded to were found, and in other mounds in the same section, the Bureau assistants discovered shell ornaments precisely of the character described by these old writers. Some of them were smooth and without any devices engraved on them, but with holes for inserting the strings by which they were to be held in position; others were engraved with figures which would readily be taken for stars and half-moons, and one among the number had a cross engraved on it. The testimony in this case that these relics were the work of the Indians found in possession of the country at the time of the discovery is, therefore, too strong to be put aside by mere conjectures or inferences. If the work of the Indians, then they must have been used by the Cherokees and buried with their dead. The engraved figures are strangely uniform, indicating some common origin, but the attempt to trace this is foreign to our present purpose. In these mounds were found a large number of nicely carved soapstone pipes, usually with the stem made in connection with the bowl, though some were without this addition, consisting only of the bowl, with a hole for the insertion of a cane or wooden stem. By turning to Adair's "History of the North American Indians,"[65] we find the following statement: They [the Indians] make beautiful stone pipes, and the Cherokees the best of any of the Indians, for their mountainous country contains many different sorts and colors of soils proper for such uses. They easily form them with their tomahawks, and afterwards finish them in any desired form with their knives, the pipes being of a very soft quality till they are smoked with and used with the fire, when they become quite hard. They are often a full span long, and the bowls are about half as long again as those of our English pipes. The fore part of each commonly runs out, with a sharp peak two or three fingers broad and a quarter of an inch thick. Not only were pipes made of soapstone found in these mounds, but two or three were obtained precisely of the form mentioned by Adair, with the fore part running out in front of the bowl; and another of the same form has been found in a mound on the Kanawha, which is at least suggestive. Jones says:[66] It has been more than hinted by at least one person whose statement is entitled to every belief, that among the Cherokees dwelling in the mountains there existed certain artists whose professed occupation was the manufacture of stone pipes, which were by them transported to the coast and there bartered away for articles of use and ornament foreign to and highly esteemed among the members of their own tribe.