CROSWELL MOUND EXPLORATIONS IN S.E. MISSOURI. 533 



twenty-four by thirty inches, with a thickness of two and a half 

 inches. They were made by smoothing the space desired to have 

 covered ; the clay was then prepared after the manner of the 

 Egyptians by mixing it with straw, or its equivalent, and was 

 spread over the surface ; in due time a fire was kindled upon it, 

 and thus the mixtm-e was burnt and the hearth completed. 



I have computed the area occupied by the settlement at some- 

 thing over fifty acres, and the number of excavations at thirty-five 

 to the acre, making the number of dwellings one thousand seven 

 hundred and fifty. It is customary to estimate the number of 

 inhabitants in a community in the United States by allowing 

 five members to a family. If we base our calculation on such an 

 estimate, we shall have as the result eight thousand seven hun- 

 dred and fifty, a population more than sufficient to entitle any of 

 our modern settlements to the denomination of city. I consi- 

 der, however, that the estimate falls far short of the reality, if we 

 take into consideration the prevalence of polygamy among all 

 barbarous and semi-civilized nations. 



A few articles of burnt clay were obtained, but I am not able 

 to determine the uses to which they were applied. The most 

 notable of these odd pieces was a sphere of two and a quarter 

 inches diameter, with compressed sides, and dotted over the 

 whole surface with small rings, as if made by cutting the lower 

 end of a goose-quill at right angles and stamping the soft clay. 

 Dr. Schliemann, in giving an account of his explorations at the 

 site of ancient Troy, speaks of finding many hundreds of them, 

 all having the same circular form, but in other respects varied. 

 He has in his collection perfect spheres, half spheres, cones, and 

 elongated centres, as well as the compressed spherical form I 

 have described. They were wrought from lead, marble, and 

 blue-stone, but by far the greater number were of burnt clay. 

 While referring to those obtained in one portion of his excava- 

 tions, Dr. S. says, "they are all made of terra-cotta, and it is 

 quite evident that the decorations were engraved when the clay 

 was still in a soft state. All are of such excellent clay, and burnt 

 so hard, that I at first believed them to be of stone, and only per- 

 ceived my mistake after having carefully examined them." Some 

 were quite plain, others contained a great variety of decorations, 

 the sun and stars very generally forming a portion of the orna- 



