258 MOUND-BUILDERS IN ILLINOIS. 



found in this part of the West. They rise twelve or fifteen feet above 

 the general level, and are four or five rods across the base. One ot 

 them, on being opened, yielded numerous bones in partial decay 5 also, 

 pottery, flint implements, and flint chippings. 



On the high level plain immediately back of the mounds was formerly 

 an old line of embankment, that contained five or six acres. The ground 

 has been under the plow for many years, and the embankment is now 

 almost gone. But pieces of pottery, flint implements, and numerous 

 chips are yet picked up, and at one time the manufacture of these was 

 evidently carried on here extensively. The pottery seems to have been 

 made of a mixture of river-mud and decayed clam-shells. In short, it 

 was made of lime mortar, and is different from that found in other lo- 

 calities in this part of the country. Pieces of clay pottery are also found 

 about the Black Hawk mounds. 



What are called the New Boston shell-heaps are found in this county. 

 They are on a high, sandy river- bank, one-half mile below the town of 

 that name. They are constantly exposed by the sliding down of the 

 bank, and will in time disappear. Each one seems to have contained 

 many tons of shells, mostly in a state of decay. Enough can be seen to 

 determine that they are of the same species as those now existing in the 

 river. The following species are supposed to have been identified : U7iio 

 tuhercuJatus, U. metanever, U. jylicatus, U. asperamus, U. anadontoides. 

 These heaps were formerly some rods from the river. In proximity to 

 them were formerly found old fire-beds of burnt stone, with broken pot- 

 tery, mostly of burned or baked clay, but occasionally of the pounded- 

 shell mixture, some flint implements, numerous flint chips, &c. These 

 heaps seem to be the kitchen refuse of the mound-builders. 



I have referred to this section somewhat in detail, because it is the 

 southwest corner of the tract of country mentioned in this article, and 

 because it illustrates very well the character of the works and remains 

 in the counties lying north of it, contiguous to the Mississippi Eiver. 



It would be useless to occupy further space with an enumeration of 

 the mounds of this section. In the counties adjoining those named, 

 they exist almost as thickly as in the latter; but none of them possess, 

 so far as now known, any special or peculiar interest. 



WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. 



Copper relics.^— Tl\\^ region abounds in interesting relics of the true 

 mound-builders. Drift copper is found often. The writer has a bowl- 

 der weighing 15 pounds, picked up in a ravine among some small bowl- 

 ders near Mt. Carroll. Implements of copper are rather scarce, two hav- 

 ing come under the immediate observation of the writer. The first was 

 the Sterling copper knife, figured in Foster's Prehistoric Races, and also 

 in the Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Natural Sciences. The 

 cut in the former has no resemblance whatever to the original ; while 

 that in the latter is too long for the width. At the time the knife was 



