REV. J. GASS EXPLOBATIONS IN MERCEE COUNTY. 147 



" Ancient Fortification in Louisa County, Iowa," by Rev. J. Gass.* 



Exploration of Mounds in Mercer County, Ills. 



BY REV. J. GASS. 



On the bluffs in Mercer county, Ills., are found, as on the Iowa side, 

 great numbers of ancient mounds. Hundreds of them are scattered 

 in groups through an extent of many miles along those blufis. A 

 considerable number of those mounds have been exj^lored by various 

 parties during several years, bv;t usually with very little success in 

 obtaining relics. 



Late last fall several young men — Messrs. Herig, Weiss, Hitt 

 and others — opened some twelve or fifteen mounds on the Mississippi 

 blutfs. In the first four — each about three feet in height and thirty 

 feet in diameter — they found, three feet below the top, a quantity of 

 human bones i-esting upon the natural surface, over which the mound 

 had been built. No other relics were found. 



In the fifth — four and a half feet high and sixty feet in diameter — 

 were found, from four to five feet down, the remains of human bodies, 

 lying in an east and west direction. Above the skull of the skeleton 

 at the right, was found a pipe of soft, dark- colored stone — probably 

 a variety of talc — representing a lizard, and one flint implement. 



The sixth, seventh and eighth were about three feet in height and 

 thirty feet in diameter, and in these were found only human remains, 

 at a depth of three feet. No other relics. 



The ninth was four feet high and forty-five in diameter. About 

 four feet below the top were found the remains of three skeletons, 

 lying with heads toward the west. Three inches from the skull of th<- 

 middle one was another pipe of the kind of stone above-mentioned, 

 representing a turtle, and one flint implement. Both these pipes 

 were of the usual type, having the curved and perforated base. 



The tenth mound was a quite small one — three feet high and fifteen 

 feet across. Nothing was found here, except a few human bones, 

 about three feet below the surface. 



The eleventh was the largest mound of all, being about five or six 

 feet high, and sixty feet across. About one foot down were the re- 

 mains of an Indian skeleton, and at five feet were skeletons lying hori- 

 zontally upon the original surface of the ground, with the head toward 



*The illustration not being ready at the time of printing these sheets, this 

 paper will be found farther on. 



