38 Indian Mounds and Skulls in Michigan. 



of tlie character of tlie inound, though they remember that many years 

 ago it was covered witli a large forest growth. 



]\Iound No. 2, which lies two hundred feet northwest of Mound No. 

 1, is over five hundred feet in length by from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty feet wide, and of the general height of twelve feet 

 above the level of the St. Clair river. It is bounded on the north by 

 a small stream, known as McNeil's creek, which also runs southwardly 

 all along its eastern slope, as well as a part of the south end of the 

 mound. The ordinary observer will scarcely fail to notice that this 

 mound is something more than the work of nature. Its sides have a 

 graceful, gradual slope, with the exception of the side fronting the 

 river, wliich is abrupt and terrace-like, even where not washed by the 

 creek. Between the creek and the River St. Clair is some low lands 

 with ponds, where are a few outlyuig mounds, small and of slight 

 elevation. About two hundred feet of the south end of Mound No. 2 

 is a clear of trees, except on the sides, and is covered with a smooth, 

 green turf. Excavations were made in a number of places, showing 

 that this entire end of the mound was covered with a solid crust of 

 black ashes, from eighteen inches to two feet thick. So hard and solid 

 was this crust, that layers of it, in large pieces, several inches square 

 and thick, were taken up unbroken. Fragments of pottery, showing a 

 great variety of patterns, bones of animals, birds and fishes (some of 

 the larger bones evidently smashed), flint flakes and chips, with stone 

 implements, consisting principally of arrowheads, hammers and sinkers, 

 were found intermixed with the ashes. The abundance of the sinkers, 

 and particularly of the broken hammers, is a remarkable feature. 

 Though such rude utensils, a. selection from them is preserved, so as to 

 give an idea of their character. I have not found elsewhere a similar 

 condition of things, and believe that this end of the mound furnishes a 

 nearer approach to the "refuse heaps" of the Atlantic coast than any- 

 thing I have seen elsewhere on the shores of the Great Lakes. The 

 absence of the shell deposit, however, makes a marked difference. I can 

 not find that those ancient inhabitants of this region had much recourse 

 to shell-fish as an article of diet. The great abundence of fishes, and the 

 ease with which they were captured, together with the multitude of 

 land game, left them under no necessity to use the inferior fresh-w^ater 

 mussels for food. 



From the large quantity of pottery fragments and broken hammers, 

 together with the thiclc bed of ashes covering so wide an area of this 

 raound, I incline to think that this must have been a point where the 

 pjannfacture of their pottery was carried on to an unusual extent. 

 The broken hammers may be accounted for by their having been frac- 



