The valley of the Mississippi is as prolific in its yield of pottery as the South-west, though most of it is found in mounds. It has therefore been attributed to a departed and mysterious race which has been called “Moundbuilder.” These mounds, however, were clearly the work of different tribes and were erected for different purposes, and there is no evidence to show that the builders were not Amerinds, similar to tribes that were encountered by our people. True, some of these tribes or stocks may have become extinct before whites entered the region, for tribes rose to power, dwindled, and disappeared, but that does not prove that they were anything but Amerinds, even though they may have developed qualities and arts not practised by Amerinds we have known. That there are some marked differences between some of the so-called Moundbuilder ware and some other Amerind pottery is freely admitted, but why this should indicate that there was any mystery about the former is not intelligible, for there are many differences in the products of existing tribes and stocks.[84] As has been mentioned, the Pueblos are extremely good potters, while their neighbours the Navajos practically are no potters at all. Had the Pueblos become extinct before the appearance of the European, what a fine chance this would have been to speculate on who these mysterious and departed people were who built superior houses of stone and made splendid pottery! Oh no, they could never have been common “Indians,” they must have been a migration from China, or Japan! Unfortunately for writers of the romantic school, the Pueblo is still there, and he is an ordinary Amerind, in some ways hardly as intelligent as his neighbour who makes no pottery and builds no houses. There is no reason, then, for assuming that there was anything extraordinary about any of the former occupants of the Mississippi valley. They were, at least some of them were, skilful potters, and some had sense enough to dig out copper and hammer it into shapes; but what is there in this that should lead us to exalt them above other Amerinds? Progress in the arts may vary among associated stocks, and also among different branches of the same stock. In the Mississippi-valley pottery there was a tendency toward upright bottle-shaped vessels with long necks, while the tendency of the Pueblo ware is in the direction of the bowl. There are also long tray-like vessels in the Mississippi valley, which do not occur at all amongst the Pueblo ware, and there are more animal shapes, birds, etc. A series of the Mississippi-valley forms suggests a knowledge of the wheel, but it is not likely that they had it, though it is possible. Anyone who has watched the progress of a common jug turning on one of our potter’s wheels, must be struck by the series of fine shapes the lump of clay passes through before assuming its last form. Such a progression appears in the Mississippi valley ware, but these jars