TWENTY- THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 95 



One of the largest temple mounds in the Mississippi valley is to be seen in Illi- 

 nois, not far from the mouth of the Missouri river. 



It is a truncated pyramid, 500x700 feet at the base, and has an altitude of 90 

 feet. The summit has a surface of 200x450 feet. Upon this platform is a small, 

 conical mound, which, upon excavation, yielded a large number of bones, funeral 

 vases and stone implements. This, most probably, was an altar upon which the 

 great high priest of the nation offered up human sacrifices and gifts to their gods. 

 Near by are four elevated platforms from 250 to 300 feet across. Beneath the sur- 

 face of these have been found a large number of relics, most probably votive of- 

 ferings of the worshipers. 



This people must have been polytheistic in religious belief. The numerous 

 crescent-shaped stones insignia and mounds indicate a worship of the moon, while 

 the hundreds of effigy monuments point to a worship of animals. Of these, the 

 most celebrated one is the great serpent mound, in Adams county, Ohio, now a de- 

 tached part of the Archseological collection of Harvard University. It consists of 

 an undulating ridge nearly 1,000 feet in length, 30 feet across midway between the 

 head and tail, and averages five feet in height. 



Within its open mouth rests "an embankment of earth, without any perceptible 

 opening, four feet in height, and is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and 

 conjugate diameters being one hundred and sixty, and eighty feet respectively." 

 Surely, if they worshiped animals, they could not refrain from praying to this 

 wonderful inanimate monster. 



As their religious natures were strengthened by their systematic devotions to 

 their deities, so they must have exercised their ethical natures by burying gifts with 

 the dead. 



Hundreds of burial mounds have been found, containing human bones sur- 

 rounded by copper and shell ornaments, pieces of delicately-wrought burial urns, 

 pipes, implements, and coarse cloth. These were tokens of veneration, and proba- 

 bly designed for the use of the deceased in a future state. In some parts cremation 

 was practiced, while in others it was most probably thought to be morally wrong, 

 and so the dead were buried in well-constructed stone cists or coffins. 



We have seen that they were prompted by the circumstances and desires, which, 

 employed, result in a civilization; that they advanced in knowledge beyond the state 

 of savagery to the highest stage of barbarism, cannot be gainsaid; that their sys- 

 tems of military tactics, of the division of labor and industries, and of priestcraft, 

 were well developed, will not be denied; that they must have had ideas of the melio- 

 ration of their social system, and expansion of the mind and faculties, which, 

 employed, embrace the notion of progress. Therefore our predecessor, the Mound- 

 Builder, must have possessed a prehistoric civilization of a high order. 



ON THE SUGARS OF WATERMELONS. 



[ Preliminary note.] 



BY J. T. W I L L A E D . 



In view of the striking sweetness of watermelons, it seems a little remarkable that 

 there are no analyses recorded in any of the compilations accessible to the writer. 

 Several samples have therefore been examined, and the results are of such interest 

 that the subject will be further studied another year. 



The juice was obtained by squeezing the ripe pulp in a cloth bag. The reducing 

 sugars present were determined by the ordinary volumetric method, using Violette's 



