MOUNDS OF SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 825 



MOUNDS OF SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



By James Wickersham, of Hew Tacoma, Wash. Terr. 



If depth in the earth is a standard by which to judge the age of the 

 relics of a race, there have been some found in Sangamon County, Illi- 

 nois, which may with safety be referred to a very great antiquity. 



At many places along the Sagamon Eiver are what are called " sand 

 bluffs." They are stratified, the strata being composed of sand, gravel, 

 or clay, and varying in thickness from an inch to 3 or 4 feet. These 

 bluffs are of more recent origin than the clay and stone bluffs along the 

 stream. They have, however, the same forest covering. About 4 miles 

 northwest of the city of Springfield are some of these bluffs, from which 

 great quantities of building sand are obtained. The pit to which at- 

 tention is particularly directed is situated on the west side of the Car- 

 penter's Mill wagon-road, and about 100 yards southwest of the Sand 

 Hill school-house. In this pit, at a depth of about 15 feet, is a stratum 

 of clay from 12 to 20 inches in thickness. A workman engaged in 

 loading his wagon with sand from immediately underneath this layer 

 of clay came upon some bones of a reddish color, and two pieces of stone 

 of a peculiar shape. He recognized in the bones the skeleton of a hu- 

 man being. In being removed from its sandy bed the skull was crushed 

 to pieces, but some of the larger bones of the body were carefully placed 

 under an overhanging bank out of the way. With the bones were found 

 two stones, one an ax of common pattern and of good workmanship, 

 now in possession of the writer, and the other is described as triangular 

 in shape, and " with some funny marks cut on it." A boy who was as- 

 sisting the workman brought the stone ax home, and the writer received 

 it from his hand ; the other stone was placed with the bones, and they 

 have unfortunately been lost by a u slide " in the pit. Inquiry among 

 other workmen brought to light the fact that several of them had found 

 arrowheads or spear-heads in the pit. Of so little importance did they 

 deem them, however, that but one could be recovered, which was given 

 to the writer, and is now is his collection. This is a spear head about 

 5 inches in length. The barbs and a small part of the base were broken 

 off when struck by the spade ; otherwise the head is in good shape and 

 shows superior workmanship. It was found on a layer of clay, some 2 

 or 3»feet lower in the pit than the skeleton, but not immediately under 

 the skeleton, nor by the same workman. Three different theories have 

 been advanced to accountfor the presence of these objects at so great a 

 depth : (1) That they were carried from the surface by a " slide " in 

 the banks of the pit ; (2) that they were buried from the surface by a pre- 

 historic race ; and (3) that they were deposited in the bluff during the 

 period of its formation. 



There are many Indian cemeteries along Sangamon River, and at first 



