MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 57^ 



"broken pottery, ashes, cbarcoal, and fragments of shells, bones, and 

 antlers of deer and elk. Only a few of the Indian Creek mounds have 

 been critically examined, but there is no reason for believing that they 

 ditter in any essential characteristic with those of the Sangamon blufls. 



The remains of Indian art found in this country diller but little from 

 similar objects found in all parts of the Mississippi Valley. The race 

 inhabiting' this locality before us left no specimen of their work indicat- 

 ing any expression of genius, or any marked degree of skill or proficiency 

 in the common arts of life. The i>ot-sherds seen in profusion about 

 their old camps and mounds are comjiosed in the main of clay and lime 

 (calcined muscle-shells), but a large proportion were molded from clay 

 alone, and aj)parently formed parts of small rude ill-shai)ed and poorly 

 burned vases and cups. The best sj^ecimens are ornamented with im- 

 pressions of coarsely woven fabrics and bark of trees, curved lines, nobs, 

 and indentations, and the marks of finger-nails. In no instance has 

 there been noticed the slightest attempt to produce upon any piece of 

 l)ottery the representation of the human face or figure, or of any bird 

 or animal. But few of their earthen vessels have survived to the pres- 

 ent time; besides the two pots found unbroken, which I have before 

 described, not half a dozen have been secured entire in the whole 

 €Ounty. 



I have not yet heard of an implement or ornament of copper having 

 "been found among the mound remains of the county, and of hematite 

 only the small celt before mentioned ; two or three so-called '' plummets," 

 several "paint rocks" (or burnt pieces), and some rough blocks of the 

 ore, constitute all of the relics of this material so far known. Occasionally 

 with the bones of the dead are noticed small cubes of galena ; and in our 

 collection is a ball of this ore, taken from a mound, weighing a pound 

 and two ounces, which probably did service, enveloped in raw hide, as 

 some form of weapon. No lead, however, has here ever been discovered 

 ■with any of the aboriginal remains. It is passing strange that the Illi- 

 nois Indians, so well acquainted with lead ore as we know them to have 

 been, should have never gained the knowledge of its fusibility and ready 

 reduction to metal. Plates of mica are of comparatively common oc- 

 currence in our mounds, and in many instances are found to have been 

 deposited upon the breast of the corpse. In one of the small ridge mounds 

 of the Sangamon blutis a skeleton was uncovered having upon the de- 

 cayed sternum ten plates of mica uniformly cut to the dimensions of 9 

 inches -in length and 4 wide, with the corners neatly rounded. This 

 mineral is not found in situ in Illinois, and of course must have been, 

 imported from a considerably remote distance. 



Of marine shells no entire specimen of the conch, or Cassis, or Lycoiy- 

 ptis, has been seen in the old graves of our country; but small ornaments 

 and beads made of the columellas and broken pieces of large sea-shells 

 are quite frequently found. In our collection is a necklace comprising 178 

 jneces of conch shell — each perforated in the center and presenting all 



