If)8 DAVKNl'ORl' ACADKMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



appeared to have been burned; and on one side of one flat piece was 

 adhering a small quantity of ashes. Three or four small bits of bone 

 were found, but bearing no indications of the action of fire. 



One piece of worked bone — a very fragile fragment, about four 

 inches long, half an inch wide, and one-fourth of an inch thick — was 

 the only implement of any kind we discovered, and this may have 

 been accidentally dropped in the earth when the mound was in course 

 of construction. 



MOUND EXPLORATION NEAR JOSLYN, ROCK 

 ISLAND COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



BY C. H. PRESTON. 



On the morning of October 4th, 1883, I accompanied Mr. W. H. 

 Pratt by rail to the little town of Joslyn, somewhat north of east and 

 about twenty miles from Rock Island. 



We went to explore a peculiarly situated mound, of whose existence 

 the Academy had learned through an intelligent young farmer, much 

 interested in the work of mound exploration. This gentleman, Mr. 

 Hanna, met us at the railroad depot and carried us in his wagon to the 

 farm of a Mr. Christ. Bartsch, some four miles north-east of Joslyn, 

 where, in a secluded little valley, we beheld the beautiful, symmetrical, 

 valley mound whose 7-aison d'etre we had come to investigate. 



The little vale, in whose exact center both ways the mound stands, 

 is about one hundred and fifty feet across from base to base of the 

 bluffs, and some six hundred feet in length from where, on the north, 

 it is formed by the junction of two small ravines, to where, on the 

 south, it is bounded by a little stream which flows toward the east. 

 Beyond the stream is a sparsely wooded bluff, while the rest of the low 

 l^luffs — some thirty or forty feet in height, which almost encircle the 

 valley — are bare of trees, but were covered with corn on their upper 

 levels and extending back. The valley itself, smooth and level as a 

 meadow, was covered with tall, wild grass. The mound, which rose 

 abruptly as if the third part of a sphere had been sliced off" and placed 

 there, was about seven and a half feet high by thirty feet in diameter, 

 and perfectly round and symmetrical. We would have felt like van- 

 dals in destroying its beauty, but that the owner had determined on 



