lOS DAVEXPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



in regard to the finding of this wheat as above stated, one and all de- 

 clared they did not believe any stone box containing wheat was found, 

 for in other mounds that had been leveled near by, wheat was also found, 

 but it was carried there by rats. In the mounds opened by me in the - 

 same locality, I found several holes, three to five feet below the surface, 

 filled with wheat, and while leveling the mound, three rats were killed. 

 The same kind of wheat shown to me as having grown from the grains 

 purporting to come from the stone box, I saw ripe in a field near the 

 spot in which the box was claimed to have been found. Why so much 

 pains was taken to conceal wheat in a double stone box is more than I 

 can reasonably account for. I have never found anything deposited with 

 the remains in ancient ruins or in modern Indian graves, that was 

 specially prepared for preservation. If seeds of native plants instead of 

 wheat had been found in an tarthen vessel, it would not have been un- 

 reasonable, for I have seen with skeletons several kinds of seeds in such 

 receptacles while exploring in Utah. Besides, no tools have beeii found 

 in the ruins or mounds of Utah that would serve the purpose of hewing 

 or cutting stone with the edges to fit, so that mortar or cement would 

 render them air tight. The most conclusive evidence against the matter 

 is that the Indians who left these ruins behind, like the present races, 

 did not work for the sake of work, but only did wiiat labor the collecting, 

 preparing and preservation of native animal and vegetable substances 

 required to convert them into articles of food and clothing. 



I was shown some of the cement said to have come from around the 

 box. In my opinion it is not cement, but grooved pieces of clay, that 

 once formed part of the roof covering of a house whose ruins helped to 

 make the pile of 6arth in which the box of wheat was claimed to have 

 been found. In constructing a roof, small poles and sticks were used, 

 over which wet mud was thickly plastered. When, by natural decay 

 or by fire the wood was destroyed, the clay was broken in pieces, 

 and left with the grooves formed by the sticks. Mr. Potter had taken one 

 of these pieces, and asserted for a fact that it did come from around his 

 box ! 



It is said that with the above mentioned skeleton were numerous arti- 

 cles of pottery, some of them beautifully ornamented with pictures of 

 flowers and animals, and also one piece " having painted upon it a quite 

 recognizable sketch of a range of mountains visible from the locality of 

 the mounds." If this is true, it is unlike anything I have ever found in 

 Utah. Mr. Potter could show me only parts of dishes which were either 

 plain or ornamented with parallel lines. I made special inquiry for the 

 piece having the said mountains painted on, but was told it had been bor- 

 rowed by a neighbor. Through a friend acquainted with this person, I 

 made inquiry, and learned that the said piece of pottery was not in pos- 

 session of nor had ever been seen by the person said to have borrowed it. 



The correspondence says the mounds of this locality " are connected 

 by gravel walks." There does seem at first sight to be remains of gravel 

 walks, which are readily traced, as vegetation grows very scantily 

 tliereon, but on a closer examination it is discovered that they are an- 



