The Far Northern tribes, as a rule, are inferior to the other Amerinds, in sculptural work, yet the Eskimo, mechanically, were, in many respects, apparently in advance of all others. They possessed the lamp, the only stock on the continent who did, but, after all, this shows only the adaptability that saved them from destruction. In a world without fuel and with plenty of seal oil, they would never have survived if they had not invented a way to secure heat from the oil. The Amerind of the forested regions had no need for a lamp. The possession of the lamp, therefore, is no indication of higher mental powers, but of a more severe environment. Nor, on the other hand, is the limited amount of their carving an indication on their part of inferior mental endowment. It is, again, the result of circumstances, as pointed out above. In a region without suitable material or climate for extensive carving, they did not carve, that is all. Place them for a few generations in the region of the Haidas, and they would begin to develop many different habits and traits. [Illustration: SPECIMEN OF MOUNDBUILDER SCULPTURAL SKILL WITH HUMAN FIGURE _Height of jar, 10½ in.; width of shoulders, 8 in._ ] On the Atlantic coast, few specimens of sculpture have, thus far, been found, nor has any carving of consequence been disclosed. In New Jersey some rude heads in stone have come to light, but such finds are rare. As the bounds of the Mississippi valley are entered, however, the art remains immediately increase in importance, but not to the exaggerated extent claimed by many writers. The carvings and sculptures of the Mississippi valley are, like all Amerind products in this line, crude, and there is no warrant for the claims that the occupants of the region were not “Indians,” so far as these remains testify. The most striking work found up to the present is that of the head-shaped vases from Pecan Point, Arkansas, but as I have pointed out before,[151] these vases were not modelled free-hand, but were the result of a process, are in fact death-masks, built into the vases. While it was a clever thing to accomplish these in that way, yet it is a mechanical method, and has little to do with artistic skill. Thomas Wilson says of these vases that they “divide themselves into two distinct groups. The specimens forming the first group are death-masks, as becomes more and more evident the more the objects are studied; the other group, while of the same general form as the first, the human head being represented, has the face and features wrought upon it free-hand, as in sculpturing, without the aid of mould or cast.”[152] It may be added that the second group is far inferior to the first, and is quite in line with the rest of the remains of this district.