\vi:k'e the osacjes mound builders! 593 



of the Osa^e River, from its jmictioii with tlie Missouri to the extreme 

 heads of the Little Osage aiul of the Marais des Cygnes, and was 

 familiar with its entire southern water-shed west of the Niangiia. And, 

 though always a'*i)ersistent relic hunter, I never found, or saw, or heard 

 of having been found by others, in that time, or since, in all that region, 

 exceeding a dozen dint arrow-[)oints, and not one stone ax, or celt, or 

 other implement in stone, or ornament of bone or shell, or any frag- 

 ments of Indian pottery. The only burials j)resumably Indian I met 

 with were on the east bank of Sac liiver, near the village of Orleans, 

 in Polk County, Missouri. The perpendicular rocky cliff rises from the 

 river bottom at that place 75 or SO feet, and is cap[)ed with shelly sub- 

 carbouiferous limestone, overgrown with briars a-nd stunted bushes. 

 On the verge of this precipice I found, in 1853, live small cairns a few 

 feet from each other, constructed of rough stones rudely laid up, in di- 

 mensions 3^ feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diameter. On opening them 

 each was found to contain the fragments of a single liuman skeleton, 

 much decayed, ami broken in small i)i"'ces by the falling in of the loose 

 stone covering. From the relative i)osition of the bones, I inferred that 

 the body had been placed upon the bare rock, in a squatting [)osition, 

 with the face to the west overlooking the river, and that the broken 

 rocks of the surface had been piled up around it to protect it from 

 destruction by wolv^es and vultures. The only work of art I discovered 

 in or about the five stone heaps was a well-worn gun-tlmt with one of 

 the skeletons. I saw uo artificial earthen mounds there of any descrip- 

 tion. 



In treating, specially of the history of Blue Mound Township, Mr. 

 Holcombe says on page 539 of his " History of Vernon County : " "lu 

 many other graves in the mound [Blue Mound | there have been found 

 mingled with human bones tomahawks, knives, arrow-points, shell 

 im[)lements and ornaments, bone ear rings, beads of various materials, 

 sizes, and sha|)es, and other curious articles. Some of these relics are 

 ai)[)arently of such anti(iuity as to lead ahnost to the thought that the 

 graves containing them may be those of the Mound Builders, or of 

 some other prehistoric race; but this is not at all i)robable. The 

 graves are undoubtedly those of Osages, who, as is well known, were 

 in this country as early at least as the year 1700." 



I have not learned Mr. Holcombe's authority for the statement he 

 makes in regard to the discovery of "arrow-points, shell implements, 

 and ornaments, bone ear-rings," etc., found in the graves on Blue 

 Mound. My investigations have failed to verify it. By persons who 

 have resided in tiuit immediate vicinity at an early day I am informed 

 that in years past, quite a number of graves were distinctly seen ou 

 the slopes of the Blue Mound ; but as in dimensions, construction, and 

 relative position tiiey exhibited the usual characteristicsof an ordinary 

 cemetery, and as none of them were opened to determine the question, 

 li. Mis. 142 38 



