The material most prized for the purpose of pipe-making is the beautiful red pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies, which is an indurated aluminous stone, highly colored with red oxide of iron. It is frequently called "Catlinite," out of compliment to George Catlin, the distinguished collector of Indian traditions, who claims to be the first European that ever visited the Red Pipe-stone Quarry, which is situated amongst the upper waters of Missouri. Catlin gives the following legend as the Indian version of the birth of the mysterious red pipe:-- "The Great Spirit, at an ancient period, here called together the Indian warriors, and standing on the precipice of the red pipe-stone rock, broke from its wall a piece, and made a huge pipe by turning it in his hand, which he smoked over them, and to the north, the south, the east and the west; and told them that this stone was red, that it was their flesh, that they must use it for their pipes of peace, that it belonged to them all, and that the war club and the scalping knife must not be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, and the whole surface of the rock for several miles was melted and glazed. Two great ovens were opened beneath, and two women, guardian spirits of the place, entered them in a blaze of fire, and they are heard there yet, answering to the invocations of the priests and medicine-men." At the pipe-stone quarry there is a row of five huge, granite boulders, which the Indians regard with great reverence, and when they visit the spot to secure some red stone to make pipes, they seek to propitiate the guardian spirits by throwing plugs of Tobacco to them. Some admirable pieces of pipe-sculpture are produced by the Boheen Indians, who are found on the coast of the Pacific to the south of the Russians. These pipes are made from a soft blue clay stone which is found only in slabs, and the sculptures are wrought on both sides, the pipes being generally covered with singular groups of human and animal forms, grotesquely intermingled.