•REV. J, GASS EXPLORATIONS IN ROCK ISLAND COUNTY. 137 



have been taken from the neighboring hills, as the bottom of the 

 valley along the creeks is only a black alluvial soil. Charcoal, 

 ashes and burned stones, and also chips of flint and fragments of 

 pottery were found here, but no indications of human remains. 

 This was, perhaps, not a burial mound. 



The third mound — west of the second — on the right hand side 

 and near Big Copper creek, is of conical form, four feet high; di- 

 ameter tliirty feet. We made an opening six feet square and went 

 four feet down through a mixed earth, then one foot through a 

 black soil. Beneath this we discovered two skeletons, in a hori- 

 zontal position, extending east and west. Under the skull of one 

 of these we found a carved stone pipe, of the usual type of this 

 region — curved base, perforated to serve as stem — and rej^resenting 

 some animal, perhaps a seal, perhaps a porcupine, and also a flint 

 implement. The bones were too much decayed to bear removal, 



April 15th, 1880, I explored some mounds on the Mississippi 

 blufts, near Brownsville, in Sec. 27, Twp. 17, R. 9. There are five 

 mounds in a single row, at distances of fifty to one hundred feet 

 apart, having an averag'fe height of one to one and a half feet and a 

 diameter of about fifteei*" feet. In the first one, nearly two and a 

 half feet below the surface, I found, by the side of a few human 

 bones, a stone chisel. In the next, at a depth of two and a half 

 feet, I found human leg bones. In the third, two feet below the 

 surface, were a few pieces of charcoal, four leg bones, and a stone 

 knife. In the fourth and fifth I found, besides some liuraan bones, 

 a few })ieces of elk horns, some of which were fashioned into awls 

 or very narrow chisels. These five mounds seem to be of more 

 modern character — perhaps Indian graves. 



In the neighborhood of Illinois City there are a great many 

 mounds. The most of these have been partly dug up many times, 

 but, so far as I could learn, no relics have been found. On May 

 12th, 1880, I tried three of those which had not been disturbed, 

 situated in Sec. 12, Twp. 16, R. 5, but found nothing but a few 

 bones at a depth of about three feet. These mounds were about 

 two and a half feet high and thirty feet in diameter. 



June 22d I investigated five mounds in Rock Island county, op- 

 posite Fairport, in Sec. 6, Twp. 16, R. 4 w, on a high bluff", com- 

 manding a grand view. Two of this group had been opened by 

 parties before we went there. The first mound Ave opened was 

 three feet high and fifteen feet across — conical. A laver of mixed 

 [Proc. D. A. N. S., Vol. HI.] 18 [Feb. 9, 1883.] 



