CONANT — ARCHEOLOGY OF MISSOURI. 355 



now remains, as far as is at present known, but a few human 

 teeth and fragments of bone. No one who has seen and studied 

 these ancient remains, thus briefly alluded to, will consider the 

 statement extravagant, that they furnish convincing evidence that 

 Missouri was once inhabited by a population so numerous, that, 

 in comparison, its present occupants are only as the scattered 

 pioneers of a newly settled country. But who they were, what 

 was their origin, what became of them, may perhaps never be 

 known. Still it seems possible, and probable even, that the an- 

 cient monuments of Missouri which are vet undisturbed, if exam- 

 ined seriously and thoroughly by those well qualified for the work, 

 may yet disclose some facts, and furnish some records, which will 

 throw light upon these dark questions. Leaving for a future 

 occasion the consideration of many interesting facts concerning 

 the habits and manners of life of these vanished peoples, and such 

 discussions as might properly engage our attention in this con- 

 nection, the remaining space allotted to this paper will be occu- 

 pied with the description of the remains of a city situated upon 

 the banks of Bayou St. John, in Southeast Missouri. 



This Bayou, as near as could be ascertained, is about seventy- 

 five miles long, finding its outlet into the Mississippi near the 

 town of New Madrid, about eighteen miles from which place the 

 works examined are located. At this point the bayou is one and 

 a half miles wide. The interesting works found here consist of 

 enclosures, large and small mounds in great numbers, as well as 

 countless residence sites of the ancient inhabitants. A descrip- 

 tion of a single group will give the general characteristics of all 

 in that region. Upon the western bank of this bayou, which (it 

 should be stated) is a dense cypress swamp, the works under con- 

 sideration are found. From the level of the bayou to the prairie 

 land above, the ascent is by a gradual slope to a vertical height 

 of fifteen feet. Upon this belt of sloping ground, now covered 

 with a heavy growth of timber, the works are most numerous ; 

 while from its edge, westward, the level prairie (that is, the allu- 

 vial plain of the Mississippi) has been under cultivation for sixty 

 or seventy years. Here, including forty acres of the cultivated 

 field and ten of the sloping timber belt, is an area of about fifty 

 acres, enclosed by earthen walls which may be distinctly traced 

 for several hundred feet, but gradually disappear on the western 

 side, having been nearly obliterated by the long cultivation of the 



