Pottery may be said to be the barometer indicating the culture stage of any people. In the far North there is no pottery. In the St. Lawrence basin pottery is insignificant. In New England the few artistic specimens of decorative pottery have been made much of by observers, but these rare examples of the ceramic art indicate progress on the part of a few individuals. There was no real potters’ art north of the Ohio River or east of the Wabash. True, there are some good examples of fine pottery from the Ohio mounds, but the ancient Northern peoples made but little progress in ceramic art save on the part of a few individuals living in the Scioto Valley, southern Ohio. In the Iroquois country it appears that the natives were on the verge of developing art in pottery, and had they remained in their barbaric splendor two centuries longer, it is quite likely that they would have made remarkable advance in the potters’ art. Much of their pottery is decorated, but it is crudely so. Their pipes of pottery were highly developed, ornate, and interesting. But these have been considered under the chapter devoted to pipes and smoking customs. [Illustration: FIG. 639. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. ] [Illustration: FIG. 640. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. ] So far as I am aware, the Wabash River in Indiana marks the farthest north, of Southern types of pottery. There may be a few strays now and then, but the cemetery explored by Mr. Anderson for Mr. Peabody, at that place, brought to light more than one hundred jars, bowls, and effigies, all of distinct types. (A few are shown in Fig. 681.) Elsewhere north of the Ohio and east of the Wabash, I have not known of effigy pottery being found.[30] Throughout the Ohio Valley there are some fine specimens of ceramic art found in the mounds. But the pottery, as a rule, between the Wabash and the Alleghenies is of the Fort Ancient culture. Some of it is shown in Figs. 648, 649. [Illustration: FIG. 641. (S. ABOUT 1–10.) _Collection of pottery, from mounds and graves in southeastern Missouri. From F. P. Graves’s collection, Doe Run, Missouri._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 642. Outlines showing various features of vase elaboration. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. ] [Illustration: FIG. 643. Outlines showing various features of vase elaboration. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. ] [Illustration: FIG. 644. Vases from a mound on Perdido Bay. Gulf Coast Group. ] [Illustration: FIG. 645. Vases from a mound on Perdido Bay. Gulf Coast Group. ] [Illustration: FIG. 646. (S. 1–4.) Wisconsin bowls. S. D. Mitchell’s collection, Ripon, Wisconsin. ] [Illustration: FIG. 647. (S. 1–4.) Urn of pottery. From mound in western Ontario. Collection of Henry Montgomery. ]