232 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



per must have been protured 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 antiquity, which must have been the work of the Mound 

 Builders. 



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

 ics sometimes found under circumstances which would indicate 

 their Mound Builder 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, which is the 

 central figure of twelve mounds, looms up grandly from the level 

 of the alluvial plain. Arrow-heads and pottery have always been 

 abundantly found on these mounds. One of them is used as a ceme- 

 tery for the colored population 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 usu- 

 ally buried in coffins of light wood, which in that damp soil decav 

 in a few years ; and as they are usually interred with their neck- 

 laces 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 Mississippi Valley to Mexico, and who visited us on the 

 plantation in Mississippi several years ago, and during his stay 

 examined a number of mounds in the immediate vicinity of my 

 explorations, and I will conclude 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 sur- 

 prise. I knew not what to expect beyond a few pieces of mica, some broken 



