256 MOUND-BUILDERS IN ILLINOIS. 



About one and a half miles west of Moimt Carroll, in a valley made 

 by Carroll Creek, and walled in by high rocks, is a spot of ground filled 

 with fragmentary relics. The waters of the creek caused a part of the 

 bank to cave in, and thus the deposit was first brought to light. By 

 excavating back from the edge of the fallen mass, at the depth of from 

 one to two feet, pieces of pottery quite artistic in design, arrow-heads 

 of a light-colored chert and hard enough to cut letters on glass, prongs 

 of deer's antlers evidently used as some sort of implements, bones of 

 animals in a fair state of preservation, abundant flint chips, and char- 

 coal and burnt stones in great quantities, were found inclosed in a black 

 alluvial deposit. This was evidently a favorite camping ground, and 

 the refuse of the kitchen lies buried over a large space of ground. 



In the numerous mounds that might be referred to but one more group 

 will be noticed. These are called " The Mounds" pre-eminently. There 

 are six or seven of them, looking like large blunt-topped hay-stacks in 

 the distance. They are located in the western verge of a high sand 

 prairie, about two miles northwest of the village of Thomson, and can 

 be seen for miles from the north, east, or south. On the west the allu- 

 vial flood plain of the Mississippi Kiver is about a mile and a half wide, 

 and is covered by a dense growth of heavy timber. A running slough, 

 a part of the river, washes this steep sand ridge on the west, and passes 

 close to the base of these mounds. Being situated midway between Sa- 

 vanna and Fulton, they are striking objects in the landscape. A rude 

 stone altar was found in one of them a few years ago, but nothing satis- 

 factory can be learned about the relics said to have been inclosed in it. 



A pipe, shaped like an eagle — one of the real mound-builders' bird- 

 shaped pipes — was taken from the stone iuclosure at the time the exca- 

 vation was made. Its workmanship was perfect, and its shape artistic 

 in a high degree. 



On section 7, in the town of York, just north of the residence of Mr. 

 John Cole, is a most remarkable deposit of flint chippings. They were 

 found on the top of a high sand ridge. A broad expanse of swamp land, 

 formerly covered with water, and an old bed of the Mississippi River, 

 runs up to the base of this sand ridge on the east. On the west the 

 sandy plain recedes and becomes lower. In the first settlement of the 

 country this sand plain and ridge were covered with a sward, which 

 held the sand permanently. Now the pasturage of cattle and cultiva- 

 tion have destroyed this, and many acres are now a naked yellow sand, 

 resting on a harder, sandy subsoil. The winds keep wearing and dig- 

 ging ofiC this sand, and piling it about in other places — sometimes cover- 

 ing neighboring fences; sometimes digging the very posts out of the 

 ground. 



All over this sand ridge, for a space a mile long and half a mile wide, 

 flint chippings are being exposed. In some places they occur in masses 

 of a peck or half a bushel ; in other places they whiten the ground for 

 yards in extent. The material is a cream-colored chert, breaking with 



