he east. No well-defined line can be
drawn between them; but the ware of the north is wholly distinct and
need never be confounded with the other groups.

MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI PROVINCE.

DISTRIBUTION.--It must not be inferred that there is perfect
uniformity in the pottery of this, or any other, extended region;
local peculiarities are always to be found. The products of contiguous
districts, such, for example, as those of Mississippi County,
Arkansas, and New Madrid County, Missouri, have much in common, and
will at once be recognized as belonging to the same family, yet the
differences are so marked that the unskilled observer could point them
out with ease.

As indicated by decided family resemblances, the wares of this group
extend over the greater part of the States of Missouri, Arkansas,
and Tennessee, cover large portions of Mississippi, Kentucky, and
Illinois, and reach somewhat into Iowa, Indiana, Alabama, Louisiana,
and Texas. The types are better marked and the products more abundant
about the center of this area, which may be defined roughly as
including contiguous parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee, with
a pretty decided focal center, at least in the abundance of relics, at
Pecan Point, Arkansas.

The borders of the district are necessarily not clearly defined.
The characters of the art products blend more or less with those of
neighboring sections. This is a usual phenomenon, and is probably
due to a variety of causes. The mere contact of peoples leads to the
exchange of ideas, and, consequently, to similarities in the products
of industry. A change of habitat, with its consequent change of
environment, is capable of modifying art to a great extent. Groups of
relics and remains attributed by archaeologists to distinct stocks of
people, may, in cases, be the work of one and the same people executed
under the influence of different environments and at widely separated
periods of time.

Mixed conditions in the remains of a locality are often due to the
presence of different peoples, synchronously or otherwise. This occurs
in many places on the outskirts of this district, a good illustration
being found in East Tennessee, where three or four distinct groups
of ware are intermingled. As would naturally be expected, the
distribution is governed somewhat by the great water-ways, and pottery
of this province is found far up the Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas
Rivers.

HOW FOUND.--All peoples have re