848 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



was improved. He says there was an oak tree growing ui^on it, which, 

 when cut, many years ago, measured 32 inches in diameter at the stump. 

 At a short distance east-northeast of this mound is plainly to be seen 

 the remains of a smaller one. 



On the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 23 

 are two mounds (12) of no great size. They are near together, one 

 west of the other, on a ridge running east and west. They are plainly 

 seen, but are fast disappearing under the plow. 



There are two small mounds (13), near together, about 85 rods north 

 and 33 west of the center of section 23, on the farm of Jonathan Hicks. 

 Like those just mentioned, they are still plainly visible, but are being 

 rapidly graded down in the process of cultivation. 



There was formerly a remarkable group of very small mounds (14) on 

 the section line between sections 15 and 16 commencing about 40 

 rods north of the southeast corner of sixteen and extending about 

 40 rods farther north. Mr. Soule says there were as many as forty of 

 them. They were raised but a little above the surface of the ground, 

 and are represented as having been full of human bones. A gentleman 

 whose name I have forgotten, but whom I regarded as reliable, told me 

 that he had frequently passed over them before they had been dis- 

 turbed, that the bones in many instances were sticking u\) out of the 

 soil, and that he liad pried out with a stick skulls that were so protrud- 

 ing. These mounds, with perhaps a single exception, have all been 

 graded down and destroyed in the construction of the highway and the 

 cultivation of the adjoining fields. 



The opinion of the people living in the neighborhood, founded on 

 Indian tradition, is that the Essex mounds, large and small, were the 

 graves of the dead killed in a battle between the Chippewas and Potat- 

 watomies which occurred not many generations ago. Mr. Soule called 

 the attention of a very aged Indian woman to the mounds and asked 

 her their orgin. She confirmed the tradition of the battle, and affirmed 

 that she had the account from her grandfather, who was an. actor in 

 the affair. There are many reasons for doubting the truth of the tradi- 

 tion as far as the larger mounds are concerned, but the group of forty 

 small ones may possibly have been the graves of the victims of the bat- 

 tle alluded to. More than this cannot be conceded. The larger mounds 

 were undoubtedly the work of the race of Mound Builders, and were in 

 existence long before the traditional battle was fought. 



Two or three miles southwest of group 13 I saw several interesting 

 dug-holes, but find nothing in my notes in regard to them, and cannot 

 now give anything like a full description from memory. The exact 

 location I have forgotten. 



