ANCIENT EARTHWORKS ON THE UPPER MISSOURI. 407 



soutli, the ends reacliiug the banks of tlie creek. Witliiu the area of these 

 remains of gigantic walls we fonnd several small mounds of from twenty 

 to forty feet in circumference, and from ten to fifteen feet high. 



Further up the Yellowstone I found the remains of an ancient city of 

 mounds. It is situated about one hundred and forty miles from the mouth 

 of that river, on a bluff of about one hundred and eighty feet in height. 

 It seems to have been regularly laid out. The streets are regular, and 

 the mounds equidistant from each other. lu the southeast quarter ot 

 this city, on the widest of the streets, is one of colossal dimensions, sixty- 

 three feet in diameter at the summit, and twenty-seven feet high. 



We could not find any opening in this mound, but succeeded by digging 

 into several of the smaller ones to gather remains of some sun-dried 

 pottery ; and in one we also found several arrow-heads of stone, frag- 

 ments of flint, &c. I counted these mounds, and found eighty-seven in 

 good state of preservation, and about sixty-three in ruins. I am satis- 

 fied that the remains of the elongated mounds, which are found always 

 on the outskirts of a city, were designed and used for fortifications, 

 though I have not been able to determine if there were any ditches 

 around them. Again, on the banks of the Moreau river, a few miles 

 from its mouth, we discovered another of the mound cities, containing 

 about two hundred mounds, and a number of the elongated ones, which 

 form a regular line of outworks, each wing reaching the bank of the 

 river. Again, about two* and a iialf miles further back to the north 

 upon au elevation of the ground there is a group of the largest mounds 

 I have ever seen. They are built very near together, and are perfect in 

 their form. There are no ditches at their base, and they are wanting in 

 other appearance of fortifications. Yet I believe them to have been 

 used as forts, and that they were placed here to guard the approaches 

 to the town from this direction. 



There is still another group of mounds located on the banks of the 

 Great Cheyenne; these resemble those last described — not so large, but 

 more in number. 



On Bonhomme Island there are also remains of fortifications, which are 

 described in Lewis and Clarke's journal of their expedition up the Mis- 

 souri, 1804-'o-'C. 



This hasty sketch of some of the ancient remains in the Missouri 

 Valley, though tiie result of the observations of two years, is principally 

 drawn from the hasty entries in a diary ; therefore no pretensions are 

 made to minute exactness. As, however, the preservation of a record 

 of the sites of the ancient remains, and every fact connected with it, is 

 important to the student of arclueology, this sketch, brief and imper- 

 fect as it is, may afford some data of interest in regard to the character 

 of the race of men who once thickly peopled this country. 



