ANCIENT MOUNDS IN CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 841 



marcb of the white man's improvement. Mr. Hugh Swarthout, of 

 Ovid, from whom I have the account, says it was 30 feet across at the 

 base and as high as a man's head. Forty -three or forty-four years ago, 

 he, with others, dug down in the center of it, and found bones at or near 

 the natural surface of the ground. A tibia taken out was at least 

 inches longer than that of a man 6 feet high. The bones were all 

 large. Though Mr. Swarthout is reliable, it is not safe to trust reports 

 of big bones and other wonders, as I have learned by experience. 



About the location of the mound there is no doubt. 



Of the group of mounds in Middlebury I cannot give the exact 

 location. I visited them once when called to the neighborhood on 

 business, but took no notes. There were six or seven of them, all of 

 which had been leveled by several years' use of the plow and harrow, 

 but the site of each was still plainly discernible at a long distance. 



From this group, passing down the Maple 2 or 3 miles, we come to an- 

 other interesting group, marked 15 on the map, on the farm of Malcolm 

 Fitch, about 1 mile east of the village of Ovid. In July, 1878, I 

 visited this group, in company with my friend the late W. S. Trask, 

 of Charlotte, Mich. With the assistance of Mr. Fitch's son, I took 

 some rough measurements while Mr. Trask was sketching. There 

 were six of the mounds, situated on level, sandy land, in a beautiful 

 grove. The largest was 34 feet in diameter at the base, circular, and 

 well rounded up. It was 4 feet high, but theheight may have been some- 

 what increased by the earth thrown out of an excavation in the center 

 by some explorer, A portion of a tree which had grown on the mound 

 was still lying upon it. It was 2 feet or more iu diameter. Mr. Fitch 

 said it must have fallen down before he came to the place, twenty-seven 

 years previously. Southeast of this first mound, at a distance of 18 

 feet from its base, we came to the base of another. It was somewhat 

 irregular in shape, being 50 feet long from east to west, 30 feet broad, 

 and from 2J to 3 feet high. Mr. Trask suggested that the two mounds 

 were part of a natui-al ridge, and that the earth from the space between 

 them had been removed and added to the northwestern extremity of 

 the ridge to complete the first mound, leaving the remaining portion of 

 the ridge with the appearance of an artificial structure — an opinion with 

 which I do not coincide. Measuring 90 feet from the eastern base of 

 the second mound, in a southeast direction, we came to the base of 

 the third. This mound was irregularly oval in outline, being 30 feet 

 long from north to south, 25 wide, and 2 feet 3 inches high. Growing 

 on top was a white- oak tree 2 feet 3 inches in diameter, 3 feet from the 

 ground. Trees of various sizes, but smaller than this, Avere growing 

 upon the mounds already described. Southeast from this third mound 

 we came to a fourth. From an omission in my notes, I am unable to 

 give the distance. It may have been anywhere from 20 to 100 feet. 

 On account of the same omission, I am unable to draw a plan of the 

 group. The mound was small, and flat. Twenty feet southwest of 



