534 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Human remains are almost invariably met with, only one exception 

 being noted. The boues are generally verj^ much decayed, though each 

 bone is found almost entire, except those of the head. This seems to 

 have always rested on a stone, and to have been covered by one or 

 more, so that it is always found in a crushed condition. In stature 

 the skeletons indicate a variation from 5 to G feet. No jaw-bone or 

 even a fragment of one has been found from which the teeth were 

 missing, and of the scores of teeth recovered there has been but one 

 decayed, a wisdom tooth still in place. The teeth invariably indicate 

 mature or advanced age. The human reuiains found in mounds con- 

 structed wholly of stoue are generally much more decayed than those 

 in mounds of mixed material. In rare instances stone implements, 

 pipes, &c., are taken from the excavations, but these are more frequently 

 picked up on the surface at no great distance from the remains. 



So far as known, no accounts have been published concerning these 

 mounds, nor have any systematic examinations been made. 



As the stones used in their construction were of a kind useful to the 

 early settlers in w^alling up their wells, laying foundations, building 

 chimneys, &c., nearly all such material has been removed, so that it 

 is rare to And a mound that has not been disturbed to some extent. 



Since all the bottom lands are now in cultivation, those in such loca- 

 tions have been i)lowed dov.-n for many years. But where they are 

 tolerably large and built principally of stone, as is generally the case, 

 they are still well defined. Those that are situated on timber lands 

 have the same growth of trees upon them as in the surrounding forests, 

 if they are composed wholly of earth. In some cases white-oaks 2 feet 

 in diameter or more are found on the very summit as well as on the 

 slopes. 



In the southeast quarter section 6, township 55, range 5, owned by 

 Mr. J. Brashear, on the right bank of Salt Iliver, is a row of mounds 

 on the top of the bluff, which rises precipitously and then slopes back 

 to the interior. There are twelve of them, the three southern ones be- 

 ing in a cultivated field, the others in the native woods. They vary 

 in distance from 20 to 70 yards and in size from 20 to 50 feet in diam- 

 eter, and in height from 2 to 5 or 6 feet. Except the south one they 

 are of mixed material. That was wholly of stone, which was mainly 

 removed by Mr. Brashear some forty years ago, when he commenced 

 his improvements. He found in it a single human skeleton of large 

 size. The fourth from the south was examined by us a few weeks ago 

 by digging a ditch about 3 feet wide through its center. It is 58 feet 

 in base diameter, and at the center 5i feet above the general surface, 

 having several white oaks growing upon it as large as any in the 

 w^oods. The base was of flat limestone, thrown together without or- 

 der; above this a layer of earth, another of stone, and so on to the 

 top. No relics were found except a small fragment of pottery, a por- 

 tion of a globular-shaped vessel, the inside of which was coated with a 



