CROSWELL MOUND EXPLORATIONS IN S.E. MISSOURI. 53 I 



Mound Explorations in Southeastern Missouri. 



By C. Croswell. 



[Read June 18, 1S77.] 



The interest which attaches to any new facts connected with 

 the prehistoric races which once peopled this continent, is mani- 

 festing itself in the numerous publications* and in the constantly 

 increasing reseaixhes and explorations in different parts of the 

 country ; and it is a source of gratification to find that these inves- 

 tigations have not been entirely barren of results — that they are 

 developing, little by little, the habits of life and the surroundings 

 of this mysterious people. Ultimately, by comparison, we shall 

 obtain knowledge sufficient to determine, approximately, the 

 origin of the race. It affords me extreme pleasure to find that 

 during my brief absence I have been enabled to add a few items 

 to the facts heretofore disclosed in connection with this engross- 

 ing subject. 



I found on the borders of a cypress swamp in New Madrid 

 county evidences of a former densely populated settlement, the 

 site of which is overgrown with heavy timber, and which, so far 

 as my observation extends, is, like all other selections for resi- 

 dence by this people, pleasantly located convenient to water. The 

 swamp appears to have been transformed from a large body of 

 water to its present state during some of the convulsions to which 

 this section of country was subjected centuries ago. It may formerly 

 have been a lake of many miles in extent, as some of the inhabitants 

 now living on its borders maintain ; or an arm of the Missis- 

 sippi, as others feel equally confident. There has been no radical 

 change, however, in the swamp-bed within the last four hundred 

 years ; still the banks indicate, by what seem to be water-lines, 

 that the large district of swamp was once covered by water of 

 considerable depth. The inhabitants in the vicinity term it 

 "West Lake" to distinguish it from another of similar character, 

 lying parallel to this at a distance of three miles, called "East 

 Lake." Along the margin of these swamps are belts of heavy 

 timber, flanking on either side a beautiful and well cultivated 



* We refer, among others, to the publication ot Mr. A.J. Conant, on page 353 of this 

 volume, which partly goes over the same ground. 



