JOURNAL OP PROCEEDINGS. 223 



Mr. G. C. Broadhcad called attention to certain ancient walled graves, 

 which he had discovered in Pike County, in this State. He observed, 

 that, during the year 1859, while engaged in making geological explora- 

 tions in that county, he had visited two ancient graves situated on the 

 summit of a ridge 250 feet high, on the north side of Salt River, in the 

 S.E. quarter of Section 11, Township 55, Range 3 W. The walls con- 

 sisted of rough limestone, taken from the subjacent strata of the ridge, 

 and they enclosed two vaults, each nine feet square, and from two to 

 three feet high. These vaults were not exactly in the same line, but dif- 

 fered about five feet. Some of the stones had been removed. A few hu- 

 man bones were collected, and it was said that others had been found 

 there. Similar burial-places existed at various places in the same county, 

 but, as he had learned, their sites only remained, the works having been 

 demolished and the stones removed for building purposes. A sketch of 

 one of them is given by Peck in his Gazetteer of Missouri, published 

 in 1823. 



In the course of his connection with the Geological Survey, he had ob- 

 served that the mounds occurred on the bluffs of all the larger rivers in Mis- 

 souri, and sometimes, though rarely, near the smaller streams. He had 

 found them nearly always on the tops of the highest bluffs, but sometimes, 

 also, on low grounds. As far as he had seen, and from all the informa- 

 tion he could procure, they were all graves, and appeared to have been 

 constructed by the Indians ; some apparently by the modern tribes, and 

 others by the more ancient. The mounds were generally formed of earth ; 

 but when rock abounded, and earth could onby be procured with difficulty, 

 rock had been exclusively used. The constructors seem to have preferred 

 using both earth and rock. He had seen rock mounds on the tops of high 

 bluffs, were the nearest ledges of rocks were 75 feet below. Where earth 

 and rock had been used, they had been constructed as in the following 

 instance : at the farm of Mr. H. P. V. Block, three miles from Clarks- 

 ville, Pike Co., on the Paynesville road, are three low mounds, raised 

 but little above the natural surface of the ground, and around the outside 

 of these stones had been set, inclining outwards, and forming a circle of 

 ten feet in diameter. 



In most instances, on digging into these mounds, he had found rocks, 

 and, these being removed, bones, and sometimes stone hatchets, beads, 

 and arrow-heads. The hatchets were generally made of syenite, and the 

 arrow-heads of cherty flint. It seemed that when bodies were to be bu- 

 ried holes were dug, into which the bodies were placed, and stones were 

 then piled around and over them. Near the circumference the stones 

 sloped outwards, and the mound was covered to the depth of several feet 

 with earth. The mounds are generally circular, or a little oblong. It was 

 rarely that he found only one at a place ; generally there were three or 

 tour, or six, or perhaps a dozen together, the base of one touching the 

 base of the next ; and they were arranged in nearly straight rows. Large 

 earth mounds occur in Pike, Callaway, Cole, Osage, Franklin, and St. 

 Louis Counties ; they are generally from fifteen to forty feet in diameter, 

 and from three to six feet high. Large trees, from two to three feet in 

 diameter, are often found growing on them. He had observed mounds, 

 of various sizes, in the following counties: in Ralls, four or five; in 

 Warren, one; in St. Charles, five; in Pike, seventeen; in Montgomery, 

 three; in Callaway, twenty-six; in Boone, several; in Howard, one; 

 in Cole, twelve; in Osage, one; in Maries, one; in Franklin, two; in 

 Greene, one; in Newton, one; in Iron, one; in Madison, one — in all, 

 about eighty. There were many in these counties, and doubtless in oth- 

 ers, which he had not seen. Pike and Callaway seemed to contain the 

 greatest number. Much of interest might yet be developed concerning 

 them, and it was to be hoped they might be carefully explored. 



