Io6 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Muscatine County — Continued. 



of light clay mixed with dark earth ; from 6 feet depth downward 

 were ashes scattered through the mass, and burned clay here and 

 there. An ash bed of irregular form and varying thickness, 

 dividing into two branches at about the centre of the mound was 

 found at 9 feet down; this rested upon the natural soil; scattered 

 pieces of sandstone, some showing signs of burning, lay above 

 this bed; no charcoal was found; only one relic — a piece ot 

 worked bone 4 inches long, }^-inch wide, ^-inch thick. 



Stevenson ^^^ states that from a point near Drury's Landing, a 

 few miles east of Muscatine, to a point near Toolesboro and New 

 Boston, a distance of some twenty miles, mounds occur on all the 

 higher points; the groups contain from 2 to 100 or more mounds 

 'from 15 to 150 feet in diameter and from 2 to 15 feet high. He 

 estimates that there are 2,500 mounds in this area in the two 



States of Iowa and Illinois. Near the limits of Muscatine 



itself he claims fifty mounds and long earthworks. Nine 



out of ten of the works in this vicinity are circular mounds; the 

 long ones are from 6 to 20 feet in length and 5 feet wide and are 

 placed end to end with a gap of 5 feet between. They are made 

 of local material; those on the ridges of clay and sand, those on 

 Muscatine Island of sand and gravel. Sometimes they show evi- 

 dence of fire action. A map of groups is given and some 



notes of explanation : 



Group I. Containing 20 mounds of which 10 were opened 

 with no result except an occasional bit of charcoal or a fragment 

 of a shell. 



Group 2. One skeleton, badly preserved, in a horizontal posi- 

 tion, and small potsherds. 



Group 3. On the bluffs, overlooking Whiskey Hollow. One 

 badly decayed skeleton, with a stone axe weighing 2^4 pounds 

 under its head. 



Group 4. On Muscatine Island; nearly leveled; pottery 

 fragments, small triangular arrows very similar in style, and flint 

 chips are strewn over the surface of the area. 



The heads of skeletons here are almost always to the north. 

 Some mounds have a hard crust arch over the remains. 



Witter 155 mentions an arrow-head and spear-head from the 



