6 10 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



lately opened at Lanesboro, in Fillmore County, Minnesota. For 

 this I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. II. G. Day, who states 

 that the image was found in the same mound wdth stone arrow- 

 heads, one copper arrow-head, clay-burned pipes, and the remains of 

 a large number of human skeletons. This piece of burned clay, 

 about three inches in height, represents the human face, and is cer- 

 tainly not evidence of greater skill than the Mandan pottery made by 

 the women of that tribe, but shows that the burning of clay w^as a 

 practice common to both j^eoples. 



There was a time, recently, when the flattening of the shin-bone 

 was claimed to be a striking peculiarity of the mound-builders. This 

 view was very fully set forth by Mr. Henry Gillman, in his j^apers 

 on the contents of several Michigan mounds, particularly those on 

 the Rouge and Detroit Rivers, explored by him in 1869 and 1870 

 (" Smithsonian Report," 1873). This view has also been advocated by 

 Dr. A. E. Johnson, before the Minnesota Academy of Sciences, in a de- 

 scription of bones taken from a mound at Palmer Lake, near Minne- 

 apolis. If this distinction could be fully established, it would be one of 

 the most valuable and one of the most remarkable ethnological discov- 

 eries of American scientists, and would form a basis for future inves- 

 tigations that might fully establish the distinctness of the mound- 

 builder among the dynasties of North America. But, according to 

 Mr. Gillman's own observations, made at a later date, this peculiarity 

 is not uniform nor constant in the tibise taken from the Michigan 

 mounds, and in some mounds it is w^anting. The same is true of the 

 perforation of the humerus, w hich has also been regarded as pecul- 

 iar to the mound -builder. Of six humeri taken by the wa-iter from 

 mounds at Big Stone Lake, Minnesota, but one w^as perforated. Both 

 these osteological variations are found occasionally in the present 

 Indian, and the former is very common in the negro and in the ape. 

 Dr. Jeffries Wyman informs us, according to Professor J. D. Dana, 

 that the platycnemic tibia is a common fact among the American 

 Indians, as well as in the prehistoric remains of Europe. More lately 

 a platycnemic tibia from the Lanesboro mound was submitted to Pro- 

 fessor Leidy, of Philadelphia, who, in reply to a question as to its 

 significance, stated that it was now regarded as of no sj^ecial signifi- 

 cance, but w^as a common occurrence in the early races.* 



We come now to consider the most interesting as well as the most 

 difiicult points in the genetic relationship of the Indian and the 

 mound-builder. These are the existence of the mounds, the mining 



the international boundary, but the Sioux use the Ccdlinitc of the celebrated pipestone 

 region, in southwestern Minnesota. By trade the Cnilinitc sometimes finds its way into 

 the northern nart of the State, and is employed as inlaid ornaments in the dark slate, in 

 the same manner as lead is used for a similar purpose. 



* For a knowledge of this correspondeuce I am indebted to Rev. E. D. Neill, of the 

 Minnesota Historical Society. 



