70 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF XATURAL SCIENCES. 



Genesee, but as the field is now a meadow I can not examine by re- 

 moving the soil, and a sharp rod comes in contact with small bould- 

 ers. Walkinp' aloii^ the foot of a hill that faces the southwest, about 

 fifty rods south of the center of section five in the same town, I ob- 

 served that the recent rains had uncovered a portion of a burned 

 rock. An oak tree, more than two feet in diameter, had once stood 

 in the soil al)ove this structure, but the stum]> was so far decayed it 

 ottered no resistance to the work of excavation. The original form is 

 somewhat obscure, for some of the rocks were in a confused heap 

 beneath the center of the old oak tree. It appears to have been a 

 rude oven, or tire-place, in the bank. No im])lements, and bvit little 

 charcoal, were found. The rock must have been carried two miles. 



About a mile west of the old town of C'omo, the soil, in places, is 

 filled with this burned rock. Small fragments are scattered promis- 

 cuously through tlie soil. A tine specimen of ])ottery was once found 

 here by a farmer while digging a post hole. He sent this valuable 

 relic to a friend in the State of New York. In this place ] found 

 several fragments of black basalt that had been in a hot iire. 



On the north bank of Rock River, above Sterling, there are several 

 groups of mounds and earthworks. In mound number one, we found 

 the most remarkable altar ever found in Whiteside county. The 

 mound referred to is a low, flat, circular mound, about thirty feet in 

 diameter and four tVet high. A hickory stump, ten inches in 

 diameter, was found in the soil above the altai-. On removing the 

 soil, we found this structure, in many respects, like the one first 

 described, except that it is oval in form, the longer diameter being 

 six feet and the shoiter four and one-half feet. The direction of the 

 long diameter was north and south. The upper layer, for there were 

 two layers of flat stones, was reddened, and in some ])laces almost 

 reduced to dust, by the action of Hre. On and about this altar 

 we found charcoal and charred Inunan bones. Some of the bones 

 appear to have been broken into small pieces. Six small piec^^s of 

 human skulls were found. The tirst was a part of the frontal bone, 

 and contained a part of the orbit of the left eye. It was about three 

 inches long and two inches wide. The second ])()ne exann'ned was 

 an irregular fragment of the occipital bone near the foramen tnag- 

 )iu)n. The next three were thick j)ieces of the temporal ])ones, two 

 right and one left. The last was a stjuare fragment of the parietal 

 bone, about an inch and one-half on each edge. These six bones 

 were found near the west margin of the altar, and were parts of at 



