ANCIENT MOUNDS IN CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 843 



that time been called to the works of the Mound Builders, and I did 

 not recognize the real character of the curious little hill 1 stood upon. 

 My recollection of it is that Mr. Gleason's estimate of its diameter is 

 correct, but that it was fully 3 feet high. Mr. Gleason and others dug 

 into it and took out a skull. They saw a large quantity of bones. 



Going again to the northwest, at the distance of something more than 

 half a mile, we come to an interesting group of mounds, marked 4, on 

 the east part of the east half of the southwest quarter section 33, in 

 Duplain. Leaving out of the account several small, slight elevations 

 about the character of which there was doubt, this group consisted of 

 four well-defined mounds. The largest one was oblong in shape, being 

 25 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 2J or 3 feet high. Lying south of this, 

 their bases almost touching, was another oblong mound, 2^ feet high, 

 22 feet long from east to west, and 14 wide. Southwest from the prin- 

 cipal mound, distant 20 feet, was the third one, 3 feet high, 25 feet long 

 from north to south, and 15 feet wide. All around these three the earth 

 appeared to have been scooped out for the purpose of building them. 

 The fourth mound of the group stood apart from the others, about 16 

 rods distant, in a southwesterly direction. It had been opened, and it 

 was said that bones had been taken out. It was circular, 20 feet broad 

 at the base and 3 feet high. 



In 1877 and 1878 I made thorough examinations of the three mounds 

 situated near together. The largest one was nearly all dug away, and 

 a broad trench, reaching down below the natural surface of the ground, 

 was carried through each of the others in its long diameter. In all 

 three, with the exception of a surface layer a foot thick, the soil, a 

 gravelly loam, was extremely hard and apparently impervious to water. 

 It was the opinion of Mr. Trask, as well as of myself, that it had been 

 rammed hard around and above the bodies. Forming an impenetrable 

 protection to the bones, it has, in a great degree, preserved them from 

 decay. In two or three cases the periosteum was found still adhering 

 to its bone. 



In the large mound were found six skeletons, besides some scattering 

 fragments. Each of two lay alone; the other four were in pairs. In the 

 case of one of those buried singly, as nearly as could be determined, 

 the body had been laid on the back, the head to the east, the legs flexed 

 under the thighs so that the heels were near the pelvis, and the head 

 raised in such a position that, as the bones settled together in the proc- 

 ess of decay, it rested on the left shoulder-blade. It has occurred to 

 me since that it may have been buried in a partly sitting posture. The 

 other skeleton that lay alone had been carefully disposed for burial. 

 It had been placed in a shallow, short grave (before the mound was 

 built), with the face to the north, the head to the east, the legs and 

 thighs flexed as much as possible, with the head a little elevated. One 

 pair had evidently been as carefully placed, with the thighs and legs 

 flexed in the same manner, with the heads to the east, one looking north 



