210 



long, i^robably about 2M inches across at the widest point and very 

 carefully shaped, being rounded at the base and running to a point 

 at the top where they were perforated for convenience in stringing 

 or fastening them together. The striking peculiarity of these thin 

 plates of wood, as of the other objects just mentioned, is that they 

 show evidence of having once been coated with thin copper, many 

 fragments of* which still adhere to their surfaces. It is as difficult 

 to conjecture the nse of these articles as of a series of five flat copper 

 rods (Plate VI), measuring SJs inches in length and pointed at one 

 end, placed edge to edge and fastened together with flat bands prob- 

 ably of the same material. This singular article, not unlike a picket 

 fence in miniature, in its day may have served a purpose of adorn- 

 ment as a breast-plate or badge worn by some hero of foretime here 

 buried. 



Close at hand were one or two rude weapons of stone. Of one 

 a fragment only was preserved, the other was a double-pointed 

 spear head, a foot long, made of light-colored chert and precisely 

 similar to those made by the North American Indians. With 

 them was found a bundle of eight copper rods or needles from 

 fourteen to eighteen inches in length, all in one bundle, wrapped to- 

 gether with matting. In addition to these, several awls and needles 

 of various sizes made of bone were discovered, and witli them a 

 considerable quantity of beads made from the column of Busycon 

 shells ; two of those which I obtained measure respectively 2% and 

 4 inches in length, are slightly curved in shape and perforated from 

 end to end. I would also call your attention to three pear-shaped 

 beads, each 13-16 Ipng, and about the size of an olive, which were 

 originally like the other relics described, wrapped in matting, a 

 fragment of this casing still adhering to one (as shown in Plate 

 VII). Not less curious is a necklace or circlet of twenty flat 

 crescent-shaped ornaments of shell, each some "three inches long 

 and pierced at one end for the cord or thong which fastened them 

 together. 



A day or two later, in digging on the northwest side of the Mound 

 the workmen found near its base a mass of bones indicating another 

 trench burial ; but the only relics found with these remains were 

 numerous sea shells of the species Busycon Perversum, which must 

 have been brought from the Gulf of Mexico, concerning which it 

 is worthy of note that the crowns or tops of the shells are missing, 

 having apparently been cut oS in each instance at about the same 

 angle, indicating that one part or the otlier was made to serve some 



