584 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



by tliem as a protection from tlieir foes, aud used very much as Starved 

 Eock, on the Illiuois Eiver, was by the Illinois Indians. 



The question will occur, where did they obtain their water for domestic 

 purposes? On the west side, just within the end of the waU, there is a 

 deep, narrow fissure in the rocks, down which one man at a time might 

 go ; and it is only a few feet from the bottom of this fissure to the stream 

 that comes down the rocks. Evidently there is always a little water 

 here, and it is quite palatable, as we found by trial. This may have 

 been their mode of egress and ingress to the inclosure. 



"We found very little remains of the former occupants. At one place 

 beneath the stones, evidently just south of what was the south side of 

 the wall, we found a broken arrow-head of white flint, the only rehc dis- 

 co verd in the inclosure. We did not dig iuto the ground, either south or 

 north of the wall, not seeing any elevation that looked like a mound. I 

 would add fiu"ther, in relation to the blulf, that the fissure just sjioken 

 of, inside the western extremity of the wall, is the only i)lace where it 

 is possible to reach the top from any point south of the wall. 



That it was a place of refuge from any body of men using fire-arms 

 does not seem probable, for the following reason: In addition to the 

 evidence which the broken arrow-head affords, the bluff to the south, 

 across the creek, is considerably higher than this one, aud is within 

 range of a rifle, but would not be within arrow-shot. This, and the fact 

 that there seems to be no tradition of the building of the wall, would 

 lead us to conclude that it antedates the white settlements of this region. 

 It is not far from a number of Indian mounds to the north, or a little 

 west of north, that seem to form a nearly continuous line with others still 

 farther north. One of these mounds I opened in 1878. 



ANCIENT REMAINS NEAR COBDEN, ILLINOIS. 



By F. M. Farrell, of CoMen, III. 



Along the range of sandstone bluffs that traverse Southern Illinois 

 running eastward and forming the water-shed between the tributaries 

 of Big Muddy River on the north aud Cache River on the south, aud 

 from 16 to 20 miles east of the Mississippi River, I have been making 

 a few discoveries which prove that the sheltered nooks formed by the 

 projecting clifts were the favorite abodes of an ancient race that once 

 peopled the Mississippi Valley. 



The first jflace investigated is 2 miles east of Cobdeu, 111., under a 

 projecting cliff of sandstone (millstone grit) about GO feet high aud fac- 

 ing the east. 



Around an ancient fire-bed, not more than 1 foot below the surface, 

 in a loose, porous clay, were found charred bones, flint chippings, frag- 

 ments of arrow-heads of very rough workmanship, fragments of rude 



