98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 37 - 
It is agreed among geologists that a large area in Missouri and 
Arkansas, including a considerable part of the mound territory, sank 
several feet at the time of the great earthquake of 1811. Conse- 
quently, lowlands now subject to periodical overflow were perhaps 
sufficiently elevated prior to that catastrophe to escape any but 
phenomenal floods, and were quite habitable. If this be the case, 
more extensive excavations about these mounds may reveal the 
motive or purpose of their construction. 
THE CopreR PLATES FROM MALDEN, DUNKLIN CouNTY 
These objects (pls. 15-19) were plowed up by Mr. Ray Groomes on 
the farm of Mrs. Baldwin, 24 miles south of Malden, Dunklin county. 
Mr. Groomes makes in substance the following statement: 
He was plowing much deeper than usual, probably 16 or 18 inches. His attention 
was attracted by something shining or glittering on the land turned over by his plow 
at this point, and he stopped to examine it. He found a few small scraps of copper. 
On looking at the bottom of the furrow, whence they had come, he found that his plow 
had struck the upper end of these copper pieces, which lay in close contact, ‘‘ with the 
heads down,”’ and inclined at an angle of 45°. He saw no evidence that they had ever 
been wrapped in cloth or any other substance, separately or together. He dug around 
them with his pocketknife, the loose sand and soil being easily removed, and drew 
them out of the earth one by one. There was something with them which looked to 
him like a small piece of ‘‘slate” [shale], such as he had frequently noticed in this 
ground in plowing. Possibly this was all that remained of a sun-dried or soft-burned 
clay vessel which went to pieces in the earth. There was also a small amount of some 
‘white substance,’’ not identified, none of which was preserved. 
Mr. Groomes is positive in his statement that the specimens were 
in immediate contact, as he lifted them out one after another, and 
that very little earth had worked in between them. 
Mr. Groomes afterward did a little digging at the spot, but found 
nothing more, except a few fragments which his plow had broken 
from the objects. 
Neither he nor anyone else consulted had ever seen or heard of any 
evidence of a village site in the vicinity; no flints, shells, bones, or 
pottery had ever been observed. Neither are there any mounds in 
the immediate neighborhood, the nearest being at Bernie, 9 miles 
northward. From there for many miles to the south the land 
stretches in a dead level to the East and West Swale, which bound 
it on either side. 
It is altogether probable that the articles* were buried here by 
some aboriginal trader, who may have procured them from Mexico, 
either in person or by traffic, and who was prevented from returning 
to the spot or was perhaps unable to locate it again. 
a The plates finally came into the possession of Mr. J. M. Wulfing, of St. Louis, who was kind enough 
to furnish the photographs from which the accompanying illustrations were made. 
