INDIAN MOUNDS NEAR FORT WADSWORTH, D. T. 307 



most of it ai)pears by its rings of annular growth to be the part of a 

 trunk of a hirge tree. 



I presume it is of a species of oak still growing in this yicinity in the 

 ravines and places protected by their water surroundings from prairie 

 lire. As a general rule, the mound-builders were wont to cover with 

 wood or stone that portion of the second layer immediately enveloping 

 the bones. 



On a ridge, elevated ten or fifteen feet above the surface of the lakes, 

 and within one-half of a mile from the post, and a few hundred feet 

 from the water, is a group of eight mounds, whose dimensions are as fol- 

 lows : diameter of base, sixty feet ; diameter of superior plane, forty-five 

 or fifty feet ; height of superior i»lane above the surface of the prairie im- 

 mediately surrounding it, three feet. I explored one of this group and 

 found its structure to be identical with the last described, that is, to 

 be composed of four characteristic strata, the latter two bearing evidence 

 of exposure to high heat. This mound, and apparently the whole group, 

 had evidently been constructed for sepulchral purposes; a slight ex- 

 cavation had been made in the fourth layer to receive the bones 

 which were as follows : four inferior maxillary, fourteen vertebra^, nine 

 scapulae, nine humeri, nine ribs, nine ulute, ten osste inuomiuatne, fifteen 

 femora, thirteen, tibice, and eight fibuloe. These were arranged in cross- 

 layers, so as to occupy the least possible amount of space, and within a 

 compass of three feet. They had been divested of their soft parts jirior 

 to interment, as Avas evident from their relative position. The radius 

 was invariably found without the ulna to match, the tibia without the 

 fibula. The ends of bones which would have been in proximity, if not 

 disarticulated, were never found so ; neither the head of the humerus 

 nor the head of the femur was ever found in its socket. A number of 

 the bones found here had been gnawed bj' mice or prairie-gophers. 



On the south side of the post, and within one or two hundred feet of the 

 sally-port, is a sepulchral mound, the diameter of whose base is be- 

 tween forty-five and fifty feet, that of its superior plane thirty and forty ; 

 the height of the superior plane, above the surface of the immediately 

 surrounding prairie, is about two and a half feet. On the road to Fort 

 Abercrombie, about a mile and a half from the post, npon a ridge aris- 

 ing about forty feet above the surface of the adjacent lakes, of which 

 there is one on either side, is situated a group of seven mounds, all of 

 which may be regarde<l as of the sepulchral class, and do not differ in 

 size and appearance from those i)reviously described. 



Three miles from Fort Wadsworth, in a direction a little east of north, 

 upon a hill sixty feet above the surface of an adjacejit lake, and sloping 

 quite to its water's edge, is a group of seven mounds, two of which belong- 

 to the sepulchral class. The dimensions of one of these are as follows : 

 diameter of base, sixty feet ; diameter of superior plane, fifteen feet; 

 height of superior ijlane, above the sloping hill-side, on which the 

 mound is situated, from four to eight feet. These mounds sustain the 



