GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 657 



They had not the sliohtest olyection, were full of curiosity, and said they knew nothing 

 of who was buried there. Had these been their aueesturs, tradition woukl liave pre- 

 served the fact. They take auy meddling with tiieir dead in high dudgeon, as was 

 instanced lately. A surgeon at a neighboring post took the l)ody of a little papoose olTa 

 scatl'old where" it lay. The tribe pursued him, i-epresented themselves as outraged, 

 and the post coniniauder wisely ordered it given up. If, then, mounds had been the 

 burial-places of the ancestors of the present Indians, they would have known it and cer- 

 tainly objected to the di^secration. Two half-breeds also rode up, watciu-d me some 

 time witii tiie greatest curiosily, said they knew nothing of these mounds, and tisially 

 rode away on their little Indian ponies, their long lariats of uutanned bulTahi-hide 

 trailing behind them on the ground, and exandued with unfeigned curiosity other 

 neighboring mounds. They had evidently receiv^ed a new revelation as to them. 



Again, the Dakotas or Sioux are su^jposed, on good authority, to be a branch of the 

 Iroquois. This tribe and their habits have been known ever since the eastern coast of 

 North America was discovered and setiled, and we hear of no such custom among 

 them. 



3. The monnds and their contents are apparently of great antiquity. They are, in 

 every case, on the very highest point in their immediate neighborhood, and perfectly 

 drained. The climate" is excessively dry ; so dry that the James River is entirely dry 

 at a point about 500 feet above the contemplated railroad-bridge across the river. Not- 

 withstanding this, many of the bones crumbled into white dust on being brought to 

 the air, like those found in Herculaneura and Pompeii, and it was absolutely impossi- 

 ble to get out a single one in anything like perfection. Around and over these bodies 

 stones and s" icks were placed, doubtless to preserve the remains from the coyote and 

 the fox. The wood could be rubbed into fine yeilow-browu dust between the thumb 

 and forefinger. Any trace of excavation around the mound for dirt to heap it with 

 had been entirely obliterated. The upright position of the skulls also indicated that 

 the bodies were buried in a sitting posture. The leg-bones, however, lay lower and 

 horizontal. 



4. The number of mounds indicates a denser population than ever has been known 

 here, or than the natural resources of this region can now support bj' the chase. At 

 the same time the number of dry lakes scattered all over would indicate that at some 

 remote period the country may have been a better one than now, and sujjported a 

 larger population. 



5. The crowning argument, however, conies with the skull. It is unlike that of any 

 human being to-day alive on this continent ; the frontal bone being low, receding, 

 growing narrow and piucdied from the brows up ; the top of the head depressed in the 

 center. The cavity of the cranium is full seven inches long, and a scant four and a 

 half inches wide. The orbital ridges or eyebrows are excessively developed, like 

 those of the great Gibbon monkey. In fact the whole skull resembles that of the great 

 Gibbon monkey. The malar or cheek bones run down very low and deep toward the 

 lower jaw, are set very far to the front, and are not v>'ide at top, but widen ve^y much 

 toward the bottom. The nose, and here is the anomaly, is much more aquiline than 

 that of the Indian. The superior maxillary is one-third deeper and much more promi- 

 nent than the Indian's. The inferior maxillary is of uncommon prominence, depth, and 

 power far exceeding that of the Indian. The month is narrow and long, more dog- 

 shaped thair the Indian's. The foramen magnum or aperture at base of skull, where the 

 spinal cord enters the head, is peculiarly small. The condijloid pi ocefises are full, oblong, 

 flat on the working surfaces, and at such an angle as to set the head upward and back 

 more than any race we know to-day on this continent. Set one of these skulls, wi;!i- 

 oufc the lower jaw, on the table, and a line drawn from the u^iper jaw perpendicularly 

 upward would be a good inch and a half in front of the forehead. Set on the lower 

 jaw and it would be two inches. Mr. R. D. Guttgisal, formerly an engineer on the 

 Mexican Central Railroad, in connection with some friends, opened a mound at Chi- 

 huahua, on the line of that railroad. The skulls resembled those I have described (so 

 he informs me) in every particular. He especially remembevs the somewhat bird- 

 shaped head, and the excessively simill foramen maginim. The bodies were not intei'red 

 horizontally there, but leaning backward as if in a rocking-chair. Professor H. H. 

 Smith, University of PeiiDsylvania, has one of the skulls. 



On the east bank of the James, three miles trom the mound described, is one four 

 or five times as large. A heavy embankment, some 12 or 15 feet wide by 3 high, 

 runs nearly southwest 150 feet, connecting it with another mound. There is also 

 another embankment at right angles, running southeast abouc 400 feet, growing flatter 

 until lost in the prairie. 



Accompanied by Professor Cyrus Thomas, of the United States geological survey, 

 under Dr. F. V. Hayden, I opened one of these mounds, at the end of August, 1872, 

 and found the same kind of skulls, similarly disposed in all respect.s. The whitish 

 color of the superincumbent earth astonished the i)rofessor, who is inclined to the 

 opinion that funeral rites were celebrated here. He was unable to account for the 

 peculiar character of this rich earth and the ash-colored layer on any other hypothesis. 



42 G S 



