Specimens preserved in this way are obtained from a large area, including the Ohio and a large portion of the Mississippi valleys. FABRICS PRESERVED BY CONTACT WITH COPPER. The preservation of woven textures through association in burials with implements or other articles of copper is of common occurrence. Our museums contain many examples of copper celts retaining on their surfaces portions of cloth so well preserved that the fibers retain much of their original strength as well as color. In plate VIII three examples are shown from a mound near Davenport, Iowa, and a fourth from a mound near Savannah, Georgia. The fabrics on _a_ and _b_ are of the twined style and, although occurring 800 miles apart, are identical in every respect. The cloth on _c_ is very closely woven and has the appearance of simple interlacing. The finest piece of work that has come to my notice is a bit of cloth from a mound in Pike county, Ohio. It has from thirty-five to forty strands to the inch, and looks much like coarse twilled goods. It is woven in the twined style, however, and is therefore of native origin. It was preserved by contact with a large number of copper beads, four of which are shown in the cut, figure 10. [Illustration: FIG. 10.--Fine, closely woven cloth preserved by contact with copper beads.] Traces of basketry are rarely preserved either by charring or by contact with copper. Matting is occasionally preserved in these ways. Figure 11 illustrates a piece of rush matting found fixed to the surface of a bit of copper in a mound near Augusta, Georgia. [Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VI CHARRED CLOTH FROM MOUNDS IN OHIO.] The weaving of the hair of many species of quadrupeds, the buffalo, the opossum, the rabbit, etc., is noted by a number of authors, and a few specimens of haircloth have been recovered from mounds. Mr. Henry R. Howland found in a mound near Alton, Illinois, two varieties of cloth preserved by contact with a copper ornament representing a turtle-shell; they are described as follows: Closely fitting over the outer surface of the copper shell is, first, a woven cloth of a vegetable fibre, similar in its general character to the outer matting above described, but of a stronger and better preserved fibre, apparently more like that which forms the woven coating of the Davenport axes. This is covered in turn with a softer, finer fabric, now of a dark-brown color, formed of twisted strands, laid or matted closely together, though apparently not woven. The material of which these strands are formed proves, under microscopic examination, to be animal hair.[56] [Illustration: FIG. 11.--Small portion of rush matting preserved by contact with copper.]