828 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Mounds 1 to 3 are longest north and south (30 by 50 feet), and from 

 16 to 18 inches in height. Mounds 4 and 5 are round, 4 having a 

 diameter of 50 feet and a height of 4 feet, while 5 does not exceed 40 

 feet in diameter nor 3 feet in height. The bluff on which the group is 

 located has been cleared of heavy timber for several years, and is now 

 used as pasture land. The writer assisted in exploring mounds 1, 2, and 

 5 ; but no archaeological objects were found. Upon a former excava- 

 tion, in mound 4, Mr. Olcott discovered, at the level of the bottom of 

 the mound, a skeleton in such a decayed state that only parts of it could 

 be removed. The skull was broken into small pieces. The body had 

 been buried at full length, with the head to the west, in the center of 

 the mound. Nothing was found but the skeleton. It was impossible 

 to determine where the material was procured for the erection of these 

 mounds. Usually depressions near by indicate the spot, but no such 

 depressions appear in the neighborhood of this group. No particular 

 arrangement of the material was observed. The location of this group 

 placed the builders between a good spring and a river of clear water. 

 A quarter of a mile to the northeast was tbe open prairie; and a like' 

 distance to the southeast was a peculiar spring, now known as the " Old 

 Lick Spring," where the buffalo congregated to lick the ground, leaving 

 a hole 6 or 7 feet deep by 50 feet in diameter. The "early settlers" 

 were in the habit of repairing to this spring, and salting a log and then 

 lying in wait for deer. It is not improbable that the mound builder 

 may have supplied the family larder in a similar way centuries before. 

 The center of the "lick" is a quagmire several feet deep, covered with 

 a tough growth of moss. 



DAWSON MOUNDS. 



On the east bank of the South Fork, 2 miles south of its juncture 

 with Sangamon River, in Eochester Township, on the SE. ^ of the NE. 

 ^ Sec. 4, are two groups of mounds. The following plan shows the 

 number and relative position : 



Mounds 1 to 4 are on the bluff, 30 or 40 feet above South Fork, while 

 mounds 5 to 10 are on a similar bluff above Rochester Creek. These 

 bluffs are almost perpendicular on the faces next to the streams, while 

 in the center they slope smoothly down to a spring branch. The ax 

 of the "pale-face" has not yet invaded the woods on these bluffs, ex- 

 cept to clear the roadway passing between mounds 2 and 3. A pecu- 

 liarity of the mounds in these groups is that they are not round, but 

 have, generally, the greatest length from north to south, although 

 mounds 6 and 7 have their greatest length east and west. They will 

 average 40 feet in length by 20 feet in breadth, and from 18 to 20 inches 

 in height. No excavation was made by the writer, but in mound 10 

 was a large hole, showing quite plainly that some person had explored 

 therein at a recent date. Some years ago, while the road leading 



