GAGE INDIAN MOUNDS. 229 



of the other bones of the skeletons were in excellent preserva- 

 tion, as the femurs, tibiae, and tarsi. As these bones were in 

 a horizontal position and the crania vertical, I have no hesi- 

 tation in asserting they were seated in a circle, and in a sitting- 

 posture faced the centre. From the slight examination given to 

 the skulls during the disinterment, I judged that in brain vol- 

 ume they were not greatly inferior to the Caucasian ; but. judg- 

 ing from the narrow forehead and the receding frontal bone, and 

 the development of the posterior lobes, the latter must have been 

 the seat of the greater portion of the brain. The original con- 

 tents of the crania had been entirely removed and replaced by 

 soil ; this soil dried very rapidly, and in contracting caused the 

 skulls to break to pieces. I was very careful 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 entirely 

 lost. 



I noticed that several of the tibia 1 were very much flattened, 

 and supposed it must have been unnatural and occasioned by 

 the pressure from the weight of the overlying soil, until I read 

 H. Gillman's report upon "Indian Mounds in Michigan" in the 

 American Journal of Science and Art, January number, 1874, in 

 which he says, ''And I here repeat the interesting fact that all 

 the tibiae unearthed invariably exhibited the compression or flat- 

 tening characterizing platycnemic men." 



Directly in front of the mouth of each skeleton were placed 

 from two to three vessels of pottery, beautifully ornamented with 

 etchings and tracings, and in one or two specimens figure decora- 

 tions were attempted. If these vessels were filled on their inter- 

 ment, their contents had long been removed and afterwards 

 replaced by soil. If they originally contained food, all traces of 

 the absence of such could be easily accounted for, as the mound 

 was occupied by numerous ant colonies and other insects ; or the 

 contents might have been removed, and then replaced with soil 

 bv the water which after every rain percolated the mound. 

 Thinking if the vessels had been filled with food, and if birds or 

 fish had been an article of diet, most probably bones would re- 

 main, I subjected the contents to analysis, but under a 400 power 

 microscope no trace of organic remains was to be seen. 



