Daily National Intelligencer

ANTIQUE GLASS.

FROM THE PATRIOT

Discovered in Hamburg, Niagara county, N. Y.

An opinion is entertained by many well informed persons of the United States, that this country has at some remote period been inhabited by a civilized people prior to its settlement or subjugation by the savages: and to the many evidences furnished to strengthen this opinion, by the remains of fortifications, tumuli, &c. may be added the discovery of a number of pieces of glass, of singular workmanship, lately made in Hamburgh, Niagara county.

I have been favored with an opportunity of examining one of these glasses, and on the authority of my informant, am enabled to remark, that they were taken up about two months ago from an ancient barrow in the town of Hamburgh, where they were found in an earthen pot. Contiguous to this pot, were also found a skull and some other bones of the human frame. This barrow or supposed repository of the dead, is situated in an uncultivated part of the town, and several trees were growing upon it at the time this excavation was made; some of which were judged to be upwards of two feet in diameter.

The glass which I had an opportunity to examine, (and I am informed they are all alike) is in the form of a large barrel-shaped bead, consisting of a tube or transparent green glass, covered with an opaque coarse red enamel. Its length 9-10ths of an inch, its greatest width six and an half tenths of an inch, and the bore of the tube 2-10ths of an inch. Near the circle of the bore of this tube is an aperture of the size of a large needle, perforating the tube from one end to the other. The enamel appears to have been ornamented with painting, in figures resembling a spindle, or two averted sections of a circle; but they are now hardly perceptible, as the bead appears to have been considerably worn. But the circumstances most indicative of art in making of this bead, is a species of enamelling that has been performed both on the external and internal surfaces of the tube, previous to its being covered with the coarse red enamel. This second enamel is white, and as the external surface of the tube was not smooth, but in parallel striae, or veins, exhibits the appearance of a white vine between the green tube and the red enamel. This enamelling appears to me to have been done, not by melting on any vitreous composition, as is practised in the present day, but by the effect of calcination for some time in a low red heat. This it is known will deprive glass, especially green glass, of its transparency; and render the surface white to a certain depth.

The composition of the tube of glass, I have judged to be simply a silicious sand and an alkali; probably with a small addition of lime, or vegetable ashes. It is hard and will not receive scratches like the lead glasses; and I conclude from the circumstance, that there is no lead in the composition. Its color seems also, owing to the impurity of the materials employed, like the common window and bottle glass; and is probably caused by a minute portion of iron combined in the state of an oxyd with the sand and alkali.

The red enamel covering the tube, and the pot in which these glasses were found, seem to have been constructed of similar materials, as they differ very little in color, texture or other external character. Probably a very fusible brick clay, highly impregnated with the oxyd of iron, and pulverised fragments of green glass, are the principal ingredients of both. The earthen pot is manifestly constructed of different materials from those employed for brown pottery at the present period. It is of more imperishable substance, of a close texture and vitreous appearance.

I shall not presume to speculate in opinions which discoveries of this interesting nature are calculated to create; it may however be added, that the fabrication of these glasses would suppose a perfection in the arts which none of the Indian tribes inhabiting this country at the period of its discovery had arrived to. That if introduced by the French from Canada in their communications with the Indians inhabiting the western part of the state, there would hardly have been a sufficient time elapsed between that period and this, for the growth of such trees as are growing on the barrow or mound from which these relics were taken. And if not introduced by the French at the period alluded to, we must refer their manufactures back to a very remote date; and one, on which Indian tradition is wholly silent.

SILEX.