“Pierre à Calumet…All the tobacco pipe heads, which the common people in Canada use, are made of this stone, and ornamented in different ways. A great part of the gentry likewise use them, especially when they are on a journey. The Indians have employed this stone for the same purposes for several ages past, and have taught it to the Europeans.” Peter Kalm, Swedish naturalist traveling through Quebec in 1749
This pipe shows the great influence of the Roman Catholic church on the fur trade frontier. “IHS” is the first three letters of Jesus in Greek and, along with the cross, is a common Christian symbol. The British at Michilimackinac, nominally Anglican, greatly preferred to smoke clay pipes, so this stone pipe almost certainly is French-Canadian.
