One of them seized it, and drew forth its contents-which proved to be a pipe-head of the red clay-stone-the celebrated steatite.
"The Boy Hunters"
Captain Mayne Reid
These urns are made of baked clay, and are shaped somewhat like the ordinary steatite ollas found in the California coast graves, but the bottoms instead of being round run down to a sharp apex; on the top was a cover, the upper part of which also terminated in an apex, and around the border, near where it rested on the edge of the vessel, are indented scroll ornamentations.
"A further contribution to the study of the mortuary customs of the North American Indians First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 87-204"
H. C. Yarrow
The water has eaten more deeply into some veins of steatite than in other places, and the presence of the steatite may possibly have had something to do with the formation of the gouffre.
"The Ascent of the Matterhorn"
Edward Whymper