80 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
To the east the landscape, dotted here and there with farmhouses, stretches in 
gentle undulations until lost from view beyond the hills of Grouse creek. 
Geologically, the mounds are situated on the highest massive limestone in the 
Permian of the region, probably referable to the Pleurophorus limestone of 
Prosser. 
On December 21, 1896, a party composed of members of the Cowley County 
Historical Society drove from Winfield to the mounds for the purpose of making 
investigations. The investigations were confined to three mounds, and a number 
of valuable relics were found. The mounds, which have been greatly worn 
down, are circular in shape, from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, and from 2 to 5 feet 
high in the center. At the depth of from 1 to 3 feet from the surface, fragments 
of charcoal began to be found; these increase with the depth, until at from 4 
to 10 feet deep, the soil is in a great measure replaced by charcoal and ashes. 
Intermingled with this charcoal are found broken pieces of pottery, apparently 
formed of broken shells mixed with clay and baked. No entire vessels have been 
found; but, judging from the fragments, they were shaped like a deep tin wash- 
basin, probably 6 inches deep and 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Several handles 
resembling those of a jug were found. The pottery is usually blackened with 
fire on one side, showing that it has been used. 
Besides pottery were found a number of implements, including stone hammers 
and axes, mortars for grinding grain, flattened stones for dressing skins, flint 
arrow-heads and axes, and grooved stones, apparently for sharpening instru- 
ments, numerous flakes of flint, also two species of Unio, the bones of the follow- 
ing mammals: buffalo, elk, deer, rabbit, two species of mice, coyote, together 
with remains of tortoise, a gallinaceous bird, and fish. 
Scattered over the mounds were a great quantity of Tertiary pebbles, which 
are not found nearer than the Arkansas river, three miles distant. 
A few years since a cellar was dug on the site of one of these mounds, and a 
gentleman informed us that a half bushel of stone axes were thrown out in the 
loose dirt and carried away by people in the vicinity. It is to be regretted that 
these relics, which are of no little scientific value, should be lost by those who 
have so little appreciation of their importance. 
BARITE NODULES IN WOOD. 
By E. B. Knerr, Atchison, Kan. Read before the Academy December 31, 1896. 
In digging a well during the summer of 1896 near Midland College, the work- 
men brought up some bits of wood from a depth of 40 feet. A peculiarity in the 
wood was the presence of many little white spheres, ranging from a thirty-second 
to an eighth of an inch in diameter. The material was crystalline in structure, 
the crystals radiating from the centers of the spheres, and chemical analysis 
proved it to be barite. The appearance of the wood fibers is as if they had been 
formed around the spheres. Whatever was the occasion of the peculiar growth, 
evidently the barite was a subsequent deposit in the cavities. 
A careful separation of the material, to get it as pure as possible, gave the fol- 
lowing analysis: 
Si@sandieaneue:. a4: 6/52. oe. 4.00 per cent. 
SOs ee ee. tas eo eee 33.25 Ke 
a Our cee eee tee: ithe th Us 62.17 fF 
(CoO Rae oie codomcntam cote ates 50 Ee 
PROC Pee eee ee acioun Oot 99.92 per cent. 
