336 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



explored the four mounds. In 1 and 4 we found nothing; but in 2 and 

 3 human remains were plentiful enough, and a quantity of these, in a 

 tolerably good state of preservation, we were able to obtain. Some of 

 these are now in the cabinet of Eipon College, Eipon, Wis., and some 

 are in my possession. 



No account of these mounds has, so far as I know, ever been pub- 

 lished; certainly no examination of them prior to ours has ever been 

 made, though similar mounds on the sections adjoining these, and like- 

 wise situated on the shore of Eush Lake, were described by me in a 

 paper read before the Lapham Archaeological Society in 1877. 



Mound No. 2, as I have said, is a conical stone pile, built of bowlders 

 weighing from 5 to 100 pounds, and perhaps 50 in number. Underneath 

 this stone pile, and somewhat mingled with its lower layer, was a large 

 quantity of ashes and charcoal, and also human remains; most distinct 

 among them Mas the skeleton of a full-grown man of ordinary size — his 

 thigh-bone measuring 17 inches — lying in a donbled-up position, with 

 his head toward the west, and near it the remains of three or more 

 other human beings. These bones were in such a crumbling condition 

 that it was very difficult to save any of them, but, nevertheless, by 

 careful work we were enabled to get out two skulls and several long 

 bones. These were all found at the depth of 3 feet inches, and had 

 evidently been placed on the original surface and the mound heaped 

 over them. 



Mound No. 3 was more fruitful in relics than its larger neighbor. On 

 and near the surface were a few small rocks, weighing from 1 to 30 

 pounds, not arranged in any order, and not found after we had dug a 

 foot or two into the mound. 



At the depth of 2 feet we found a few small and much broken pieces 

 of pottery, made of a reddish clay mixed with fine particles of broken 

 stone. The pieces were too few, small, and badly broken to admit of 

 even a guess ;it the articles of which they once formed apart. They 

 had never been burned, as it seemed to us, and were very fragile, ready 

 to crumble ;ii the si ig litest touch. A piece of red chalk, or soft chalk- 

 like stone, with which a red mark can be made on wood or paper, and 

 ;i small chip of Hint were the only other relics found in this mound, ex- 

 cept the bones which we came upon at the depth of 3 feet. These were 

 much better preserved than those in No. 2, and we were able to obtain 

 a large number in tolerably good condition, among them several skulls. 



So tar as we could determine, there seemed to be no order whatever 

 observed in the arrangement of these bones; skulls and long bones, 

 ribs and finger and toe bones were mixed in utter confusion. In no 

 case did a skeleton seems to have been placed in the mound entire. The 

 bones of twenty-five or thirty individuals had evidently been gathered 

 into a heap on the original turf, and a simple mound raised over 

 them. It was very evident that no pit had been dug to receive them, 

 and the only question is why the bones were in this confused condition. 



