Results of Investigations of Indian Mounds. 373 



different points, on a, level "with the base towards the centre; after ex- 

 cavatmg 8 or 10 feet a skull was discovered, but in such a decayed 

 t^ondition that it immediately crumbled to pieces. A few minutes la* 

 ter the workmen in the other two ditches made several similar discov- 

 eries. We now became more careful, and by digging around the skull 

 we were able to procure it intact by removing a considerable amount 

 of soil. 



The skulls were in a very poor state of preservation — the gelatinous 

 matter had been entirely dissolved away, and the earthy material very 

 much resembled a spungy mass saturated with water, being so soft 

 that water could be pressed out by a very slight force ; the bony struc- 

 ture was very fragile, but on drying became quite hard and brittle. 



The soil contained a great deal of moisture, being perfectly saturated 

 from two feet below the surface to the base of the mound, and, as the 

 soil was usually in that condition, it was very unfavorable to the pre- 

 servation of the remains. In one of the better preserved specimens I 

 observed a characteristic which Foster points out in his "Prehistoric 

 Races of the United States" — the tendency at the union between the 

 parietal and squamous bones towards the straight line. In nearly all 

 of the specimens, although the skulls were in a very decayed condition, 

 the perfect form remained ; the nasal bones stood out prominently, and 

 the large massive jaw-bones were filled with worn but well preserved 

 teeth ; except portions of the upper jaw-bone, none of the facial bones 

 were wanting. From the size of the skulls, I judge the twelve skele- 

 tons exhumed were all adults. Many of the other bones of the skele- 

 tons were in excellent preservation, as the femurs, tibiae, and tarsi. 

 As these bones were in a horizontal position and the crania vertical, I 

 have no hesitation in a.^^serting they were seated in a circle, and in a 

 sitting posture faced the centre. From the slight examination given 

 to the skulls during this disinterment. I judged that in brain volume 

 they were not greatly inferior to the Caucasian ; but judging f/om the 

 narrow forehead and the receding frontal bone, and the development 

 of the posterior lobes, the latter must have been the seat of the great- 

 er part of the brain. The original contents of the crania had been en- 

 tirely removed and replaced by soil ; this soil dried very rapidly, and 

 in contracting caused the skulls to break to pieces. I was very care- 

 ful in packing these specimens, but in transporting them nearly a 

 thousand miles by river to St. Louis they became very much injured, 

 some of the skulls being completely destroyed and most of them en- 

 tirely lost. 



I noticed that several of the tibia) were very much flattened, and 

 .<iipposed it must have been unnatural and occasioned by the pressure 



