BEPORT OF X'S EXPLOKATION OF ANCIENT MOUNDS IN UNION COUNTY, 



KENTUCKY, 



Made hy the request and at the exjyense of the Smithsonian Institution. 



By Sidney- S. Lyon. 



Jeffersonville, Indiana, July 29, 1808. 



I have made to the Institution the following shipments : First, from 

 Shawneetown, one box containing casts of all that was left of the 

 famous " Foot-print Eock," the last of this rude carving having been 

 destroyed or reuioved since my examination in 1858. Second, four bar- 

 rels of specimens from the Lindsay mounds, or that from which was 

 taken the parcels sent by myself several years since to the Institution. 

 These articles were taken from the laud belonging to Leonard Eober- 

 son, but the property has since changed ownership. Third, three bar- 

 rels and three boxes ; the barrels contain articles from mounds 37 and 

 38, shown on diagram No. 6 ; box ISTo. 2 contains articles from the Lind- 

 say mound, and a few from other places; box No. 3, articles from 

 McCoughely's mound, in the rear of Raleigh, Kentucky; box No. 4, 

 some of the best articles from mounds 37 and 38. 



The results of this exploration have been of less interest than I ex- 

 pected. I encountered unforeseen difficulties. The greatest trouble was 

 to get and retain good laborers, and the utter impossibility of boarding 

 them near the field of operations. During the last twenty-two days the 

 men had to walk four miles to and from their work, with the thermometer 

 at 95°. An expedition, to operate most efficiently, should be provided 

 with tents and encamp near the work. The company should be organ- 

 ized before starting and not depend on assistance which may be pro- 

 cured in the country. There is a great field for investigation on both 

 sides of the Ohio, near the mouth of the Wabash Eiver. The people of 

 the country have little or no exact information as to the number or loca- 

 tion of the mounds. When a field is cleared inclosing a mound, and 

 bones are ploughed up, the fact becomes known, but the existence of 

 mounds in the woods or on the ridges is almost unknown; and as they 

 are undoubtedly very numerous an explorer would find work enough 

 to do. 



1 send you diagrams of some of the groups I have examined, with an 

 account of their character, and of the facts obtained during the forty- 

 two days of our exploration. I hope the results of my labors may prove 

 satisfactory to the Institution, although they are not all I could have 

 wished. 



The diagrams of the groups of mounds are not deduced from exact 

 surveys as to course or distance, the bearings having been taken by a 

 common x)ocket-comi)ass and the distance measured by stepping. 



