162 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



thickness. Accurate levelings prove the deposit to be eighteen feet 

 above the highest water mark known since Fort Armstrong was estab- 

 lished on the Island." 



Again : "• The covering was evidently an aqueous deposit, the sedi- 

 mentarj' lines being perfect and unbroken. Deposited with and above 

 the shells are gravel and sand, the material becoming finer toward the 

 top, the last foot being fine alluvium and vegetable mould." He further 

 saj'S : " The section has been visited by many members of the Academy, 

 and by Prof. Alexander Winchell, while some of the bones were in place, 

 and all agree that the covering of this pre-historic man was a sedimen- 

 tary deposit." 



I must say that I had then no serious doubts of the correctness of this 

 conclusion. Later experience, however, and examination of shell-beds 

 and mounds have fully convinced me that this was an ancient burial 

 mound, and for the following reasons : 



First. It was eighteen feet above high water, and if a natural aqueous 

 deposit of shells would accumulate there, certainly others should have 

 been formed at the same period, and in similarly elevated positions, but 

 this is the only instance of the kind in these parts. 



Second. The bed was very irregular in thickness and position, being 

 abruptly curved, and presenting an appearance similar to layers, since 

 found in several ancient mounds, and especially in Mound No. 3, where 

 the inscribed tablets were discovered, while none of the layers anywhere 

 else except in the mounds were of this character ; and further, it was not 

 in a position where it could have been produced by floating ice, or any 

 other natural means as yet suggested, even if the river had been eighteen 

 feet higher. 



Third. With the skull and other bones of the skeleton were found, as 

 described in Vol. I, " the point of an antler of a deer or elk," the 

 exact counterpart of several which we have since found with the other 

 relics in the ancient burial mounds, and which have been found nowhere 

 else. 



At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held on August 20th, 1877, the 

 President stated the especial object of the meeting to be the reception 

 and consideration of a communication from the Trustees of Griswold 

 College. 



Mr. C. E. Putnam, who was present by invitation, handed in the fol- 

 lowing paper, which had been received by him : 

 To the Academy of Sclenres : 



The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Griswold College 

 (subject to the approval of said Board), make the following offer: 



I. To grant by perpetual lease so much land as may be needed for use of 

 the Academy of Science for its buildings in the north-east corner of Cathedral 

 Block, the Academy of Science to pay all taxes or assessments, municipal or 

 otherwise, that may be lawfully levied upon the lands or the buildings thereon ; 

 the buildings to be used for the appropriate objects of the said x\.cademy of 

 Science. 



