572 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



as bard as a brick, and the bottom for the depth of a foot filled with 

 ashes, charcoal, and broken jjottery. 



Nine miles farther east, up the Sangamon Yalley and near the bluffs, 

 is another large conical mound, 25 feet high, which has never been ex- 

 amined even superficially. These three mounds, assuming the latter 

 two to be the product of human agency, are all of the first class, and of 

 any class worthy the designation of mounds, found upon the river ter- 

 races or bottoms in the county. 



The next class of mounds comprise those next largest in magnitude, 

 and are more numerous than the first. They are invariably perched 

 upon the peaks of the Sangamon bluffs, rarely exceeding 8 or 10 feet in 

 height by 20 to 30 in diameter, and are more frequently met of much 

 smaller dimensions. This class of mounds differs from all the others 

 in the peculiar disposition of the remains they inclose. Too few in num- 

 bers to constitute the sepulchers of a distinct tribe with an exclusive 

 burial custom, we must conclude that they cover the remains of a class 

 of individuals distinguished from the commonalty for sui)erior ability 

 or merit. The mode of inhumation in mounds of this kind consisted in 

 placing the body or bodies (for they contain from one to six or eight 

 each) of the deceased upon the ground in a sitting or squatting posture, 

 with the face to the east, and inclosing them with a rudely-constructed 

 circular wall of rough, undressed stones, which was gradually contracted 

 at the top, and finally covered over with a single broad stone slab, over 

 all of which the earth was heaped. Though I have carefully examined 

 several of these mounds, I have not yet succeeded in securing from them 

 either an entire skull or earthen vessel, as their inclosed cairns are in- 

 variably found to have fallen in and crushed the bones and accompany- 

 ing pottery into a confused mass. Nor have I discovered in them cop- 

 per implements or jiipes of any description, or any object of carved 

 stone; but only a few tiint and bone implements, and broken pottery 

 without ornamentation and of very poor quality. Judging from every 

 indication, external and internal, I would conclude that the class of 

 earthworks under consideration were very old were it not for the sin- 

 gular fact that in one of them, a few years ago, the decayed bones of a 

 single individual were found, with a few flint arrow points, a small 

 earthen cup or vase, and an iron gun-barrel very much corroded. 



The next class of mounds in this county are so numerous and were 

 obviously constructed with so little care and labor that we must regard 

 them as the depositories or cemeteries of the common and untitled dead. 

 They are seen on every knob and ridge of the blufl's and on the hills 

 bordering all of our smaller streams. Seldom rising in elevation more 

 than a foot or two above the general surface, they frequently cover a 

 space of 10 or 15 yards in diameter, and we sometimes find eight or ten 

 of them in a row, along the crest of a ridge, separated from each other 

 by intervals of 10 or 15 yards; each containing the bones of a greater 

 or less number of individuals in different states of preservation. Their 



