376 Results of Investigations of Indian Mounds. 



pleraents of copper and plates of mica, with fragments of obsidian. 

 These facts would indicate that they enjoyed commercial advantages to 

 a very high dergee, as I am acquainted with no point where obsidian 

 could have been procured nearer than Mexico — the mica most proba- 

 bly from North Carolina, it being the nearest point where that mineral 

 occurs. As the Mound Builders must have been ignox-ant of the art of 

 smelting, this copper must have been procurred in a native state from 

 the mines of Lake Superior, and that they did work these mines seems 

 no longer a question of doubt. Professor Pumpelly, our late State 

 Geologist, informed me he had seen marks of mining there of great an- 

 tiquity, which must have been the work of tlie Mound Builders. 



We should not be too hasty in drawing our conclusions, as relics 

 sometimes found under circumstances which would indicate their 

 Mound Builders origin, are afterwards proved to belong to another 

 race. Prof. G. C. Forshey, in "Ancient Monuments," says "Mounds! 

 mounds without number * * * The first of these groups is some fifty 

 miles above Vicksburg, on the west bank of the Mississippi, two miles 

 back, on the estate of Dr. Keene Richards, called Transylvania. The 

 temple, Avhich is the central figure of twelve mounds, looms up grand- 

 ly from the level of the alluvial plain. ArroAV-heads and pottery have 

 always been abundantly found on these mounds. One of them is used 

 as a cemetery for the colored popidation of the plantation.'" (The italics 

 are mine.) I wish to draw attention to the fact that too great care 

 cannot be exercised in these investigations as the negroes are usually 

 hurried in cofiins of light wood, which in that damp soil decay in a very 

 few years ; and as they are usually interred with their necklaces of 

 beads and other trinkets, these relics found in the mounds might lead 

 to great confusion in assigning to them their proper origin. It is not 

 an unusual case in the South to use the mounds as cemeteries for the 

 negroes. I have seen several used for that purpose. 



I have been in communication with Mr. Anderson, of Centre ville, 

 Ohio, who examined a large number of mounds throughout the Missis- 

 sippi Valley to Mexico, and who visited us on the ^plantation in INIissis- 

 sippi several years ago, and during his stay examined a number of 

 mounds in the immediate vicinity of my explorations, and I will con- 

 clude my remarks by reading a few extracts from his letter : 



"A desire to send you photographic representations of the articles 

 found in my hurried explorations of the Issaquena Mounds, is I hope 

 sufficient apology for the delay in answering your favor of the 21st ult. 



"The result of the examinations were to me a great and agreeable 

 surprise. I knew not what to expect beyond a few pieces of mica, 

 some broken earthenware, and perhaps a specimen or two of obsidian, 

 and therefore felt unusual pleasure in bringing to light a rich and re- 



