A Brief Chapter on Sacrificial Moumh. 63 



of the elements, present an iippearancc described as resembling -worm- 

 eaten hickory or ash, but more deeply corrugated. The general form 

 of the mound is a truncated cone, whose base diameter is five hundred 

 feet; summit diameter, one hundred and thirty feet; and perpendicu- 

 lar altitude, sixty-two feet. 



A correspondent of the St. Louis Times thus describes its salient 

 features : 



" Encompassing the mound on all sides — save a causeway on the 

 north — is a trench, about two hundred feet wide, and now about 

 five feet deep, though it has apparently filled several feet in the 

 ages that have elapsed since its excavation. From this moat was 

 doubtless taken the earth used in rearing the mound. The ap- 

 proach or causeway which leads across the trench from the north 

 is ten feet in width. Ascending from this causeway to the sum- 

 mit of the mound are the remains of a rude flight of stairs, constructed 

 originally of roughly hewn stones. Most of these steps are now dis- 

 placed, and quite a number have rolled down into the trench below, 

 but there is unmistakable evidence that they were at one time 

 arranged in regular order of ascent, and could doubtless be again 

 replaced in position by an intelligent architect. 



" By a series of investigations, I found that about a foot beneath the 

 surflice there was a regular and solid platform of stone covering the 

 entire top of the mound. This platform, though constructed by rude 

 and unmechanical hands, is placed in position with a precision and 

 firmness that might well defy the ravages of the elements in all coming 

 ages. 



"x\bout twelve feet from the northern edge of the mound, and 

 directly on a line with the approach and stairway, I noticed a very 

 perceptible elevation of the earth, covering an area of about twenty 

 by fifteen feet, and driving a pick into the elevated ground, the point 

 struck upon solid rock a few inches below the surface. Knowing the 

 rock struck was considerably more elevated than the general level of 

 the layer of stone, I drove my pick into the elevation in several other 

 places, always finding solid rock near the surfiice. 



" Determined to investigate further, I called my assistants to my aid, 

 and soon a considerable portion of a large flat rock was laid bare. 

 Pushing our work, we soon unearthed a piece of workmanship that an 

 antiquarian would have worked a w^eek to bring to light. The newly 

 discovered curiosity consisted of a flat rock, twelve feet long, ten feet 

 wide, and eleven inches thick. The center of the stone was hollowed 

 to a depth of six inches, with a margin of about one foot around the edge. 

 "At the south end of the stone, a round hole, five inches deep and 



