AET OF EARTHWORK BUILDERS WILLOUGHBY. 495 



around it as illustrated in / 6, or by the use of an outer band &, ap- 

 plied as / 7, or the rivet may be wound with vegetal fiber or cord as 

 in A.', d, and c 5. 



OTHER METALS. 



The occurrence of meteoric iron in most of the mound groups that 

 have been systematically explored, in the form of nuggets or worked 

 into various objects, shows that its malleability was generally under- 

 stood by the people of this region. It was worked into headplates, 

 breastplates, beads, coverings for ear plugs, adz blades, chisels, and 

 drills. Plate 4 e shows a meteoric iron blade, and several chisels of 

 this metal with portions of antler handles still adhering to two of 

 them are illustrated in /. 



Native silver sometimes occurs in considerable masses in the 

 mounds. There are two nuggets in the Peabody Museum of Harvard 

 University, the combined weight of which is 13f pounds. These 

 were taken from a mound at Grand Rapids, a northern outpost of 

 the Ohio culture group. Silver seems to have been used principally 

 for overlaying copper and wooden objects, such as buttons, ear 

 plugs, and bracelets. Many beads were also made of silver, some of 

 them being quite massive. 



Gold was very rare indeed in the mounds. There are one or two 

 references by early writers to finding of gold objects, but the only 

 authentic specimens Icnown to the writer are several small sheets 

 hammered from small nuggets, which were taken from an altar of 

 the Turner group and are now in the Peabody Museum at Cam- 

 bridge. 



ENGRAVINGS UPON BONE. 



The decorated human femora illustrated in plate 6, a and z, were 

 found with skeletons in the great mound of the Hopewell group, and 

 the designs engraved upon them are shown developed in h and h. 

 The different parts making up the composite human head and its 

 appendages in h are illustrated, somewhat reduced, in c-h. In c 

 and d we have human heads wearing headplates supporting antlers 

 similar to those shown on plate 4, h and c. What appears to be the 

 beak of the spoonbill is represented in h. 



Two more of these remarkable engravings are illustrated on plate 

 7. The upper one, «., was taken from an altar of the Turner group 

 in a fragmentary state. The developed design appears in h and <?, and 

 the more prominent features composing the design are shown some- 

 what reduced in d, e, f. The conventionalized head of what may be 

 the bison appears only when the design c is reversed. 



The specimen illustrated in g was found in 1801 in a mound at 

 Cincinnati. The developed design, h and i, are from drawings by 



