132 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Exploration of Mounds in Louisa County, Iowa. 



BY REV. A. BLUMEK. 



Having formerly resided in Louisa county, Iowa, and being- well 

 acquainted with the situation of the various groups of mounds in 

 that region, and having become especially interested in the subject 

 of ArchfBology on account of the discoveries recently made in 

 various parts of the country, I visited that place during the first 

 week of the present month in company with Rev. .J. Gass, for the 

 purpose of making some explorations among those mounds situated 

 on the bluff on the west side of the Mississippi valley along the 

 Muscatine slough, which latter has an extent of about thirty miles. 



The country is here everywhere dotted thickly with ancient 

 mounds. Many of them have already been explored by parties of 

 the neighborhood and by strangers, but, as I learned, compara- 

 tively few relics have been discovered. 



We visited several groups lying within the distance of a few 

 miles, and finally determined to open those of a group situated two 

 miles east of Grandview and three miles south of the boundary of 

 Muscatine county. With the aid of Mr. Fr. Haas and a few men, 

 residents of the vicinity, whom we engaged to assist in the labor, 

 our work was begun on the farm of Mr. P. Haas, S. W. :j N. E. |^ 

 Sac. 25, Twp. 75 N, R. 3, where a considerable number of mounds 

 had been examined some years ago by Mr. Lindley and others. 



The first mound we opened, and the only one at the exploration 

 of which T was present, proved to be a sacrificial or cremation 

 mound. It is situated on the extreme edge of a prominent point 

 of the bluff, having on both sides ravines extending down into the 

 valley. Its form is that of a flat cone, of a diameter of al)out thirty 

 feet and elevation of three feet. 



Mr. F. Haas, who is the son of the owner of the land, has given, 

 as he told me, considerable attention to the exploration of the 

 mounds, and opened quite a number of them. Late last fall he 

 made an attempt upon this one, but coming to a layer of very hard 

 burned clay intermingled with coals, he found the work too diffi- 

 cult and abandoned it, and did not try digging here again until he 

 joined in our work. These circumstances and the fact that in two 

 neighboring mounds, one on each side of this, some relics were 

 found by Mr. Lindley, attracted our particular attention, and we 

 determined, with the assistance of Mr. Haas, to explore it thor- 



