PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 685 



In addition to these our find included tliirty-flve chipi^ed implements 

 of white chert, varying from 8 to 10 iuches in length, three polished 

 axes, a plummet, and a stone tube. It is quite uncommon to find axes 

 in a mound. These were taken from the base of the mound. There 

 were no beads, shells, pipes, or ornaments found. 



The country about the mouth of the Illinois and Missouri Eiver is a 

 good locality for mound exploration, especially on the highlands, but 

 those in the bottoms are much the richest in relics. Fifteen miles from 

 the mouth of the Illinois River is a group of six mounds in the river 

 bottom ; the largest of these was explored by the writer, and a pipe, cop- 

 per ornaments, shells, &c., recovered. A ceremonial ax, however, was 

 taken from a mound on the highland. On the Illinois River bottom, 35 

 or 40 miles from its mouth, is another group of eleven mounds, which 

 are larger than those of the first group. Arrangements have been made 

 with the owner of the field, and digging in them will soon commence. 

 Some of the most i^romising mounds, however, are within a day's drive 

 of Otterville, on the American bottom, between Alton and Saint Louis. 

 Some valuable relics have been obtained here, yet very few, if any, of 

 these large mounds have been explored. 



The mounds, group No. 1, described below are situated on the Illinois 

 River, 40 miles from its mouth. They are ten in number, and are in the 

 lowlands or bottom, just beneath a precipitous bluff and near the river 

 ,bank. 



An excavation was made in No. 8, 13 feet deep, which revealed ashes 

 in considerable quantity, alongside of which was an arch ci fiat stone 

 covering a skeleton not very well preserved. The skull was broken and 

 lying on a thin shingle-like piece of cedar, colored green with coi)per. 

 Some of the bones were green also, but no copper implements were found, 

 they being entirely oxidized. Nearly a quart of shell beads, some large, 

 others small, were found at the head as well as at the feet of the skele- 

 ton. An excavation in No, 7 to the depth of 13 feet revealed nothing. 

 No. 4 is a conical mound, flat on top with a depression in the center. 

 At the depth of 10 feet two crumbling skeletons were imbedded in a 

 light-colored marly earth, showing marks of stratification, as if water 

 had been used in its deposition. The white and dark colored laminae, 

 which I have not before seen in a mound, were not half an inch in thick- 

 ness. The same stratified earth was found near the skeleton in No. 8. 

 No relics of any kind except the human bones occurred in mound No. 4. 



No. 2 is a double mound much lower in the middle, and seeming to be 

 two mounds joined together. In this an excavation was made 18 feet 

 deep, and tunnels carried under a good part of the mound, but nothing 

 of value was found except burned stones, some ashes, and a few river 

 shells. The mounds were very hard, and the excavations were made as 

 we descended. Yet this long search yielded little or nothing. The au- 

 thor cami)ed among the mounds with five young men, but in spite of 

 good tools the young men got discouraged, and further exploration was 



