394 ETHNOLOGY. 



Mouuds, iu liouor of Major Hampsou of the Tenth United States Infan- 

 try, the present commander of the post. 



Of this number two are i^articularly cons})ieuous, being nearly double 

 the height of the rest iiud situated between them and the brow of the 

 knoll ; each is in form of the frustum of a cone, the usual shape of mounds 

 in this vicinity. The measurement of the first is as follows : diameter 

 of base fifty-five feet, diameter of superior plane thirty-five feet, perpen- 

 dicular height, measured on one side, four feet, and six feet on the other ; 

 this diflerence is owing to the ground on which it is located sloping 

 slightly to the lake. The measurement of the second mound is as follows : 

 diameter of base fifty feet ; diameter of superior plane, twenty feet ; 

 height of superior plane, five feet. 



Years ago animals have made inroads into the first of these mounds, 

 carrying out fragments of human bones; their burrows now, however, 

 are caved in, destroying its otherwise symmetrical appearance. The 

 second mound Avas explored by me; all that portion of the mound being 

 removed perpendicularly beneath the superior plane. In its center were 

 found three imperfect skeletons whose crania were lying near together. 

 They had evidently been buried with their feet in the direction of three 

 cardinal points of the compass, one to the east, one to the north, the 

 third to the west, two upon their sides, the third upon its back. A flat 

 stone had formed a pillow for the three. Surrounding the bones was a 

 stratum of black pulverulent carbonaceous earth, whose thickness was 

 twelve inches ; this was not different from the same found in Mound Xo. 

 1, and iu every sepulchral mound subsequently explored. I found in two 

 or three spots of this layer an impalpable buff-colored powder, evidently 

 the remains of some decomposed wood used in interment. Some distance 

 from these skeletons, and a foot above them, was found a single craniuu^ 

 lying upon its side, beneath a few spinous processes of the vertebra of 

 a buffalo. Uere and there, in the upper stratum of the mound, I found 

 the skulls of the musk-rat, skunk, prairie-wolf, and other small animals, 

 without the other bones of the carcass ; these had been most probably 

 attached to medicine-bags. The structure of this mound was essen- 

 tially the same as that of all the sepulcliral mounds explored by me, 

 except Ncf. 1, and consisted of four strata. The first or uppermost layer 

 was three feet thick, and was composed of a black, moist, adhesive vege- 

 table mold, not differing much from the surface-soil of the prairie exce])t 

 that it was a little darker in color, contained a little more moisture, and 

 was more adherent to the shovel. The second layer was a foot thick, 

 and consisted of a bla(;k, dry, pulverulent carbonaceous matter, in wliich 

 human bones are usually lound. The third layer was also a foot thick, 

 and consisted of a siliceous loam. The fourth layer was a concrete com- 

 posed of gravel and lime, and varied in thickness, as was required to 

 malce the upper surface quite horizontal. The two last layers had ])roba- 

 bly been dried in the sun and afterward burned. 



On a line running nearly east and west, and about sixty feet further 



