66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



XVII. Pottery top and bottom. Traces of bones. Length about 

 4 feet. 



XVIII. Similar to preceding. 



XIX. Pottery bottom. Traces of small skeleton extended. Length 

 about 4 feet. 



XX. Stone ends, pottery bottom. No traces of bones. Contained 

 a large piece of galena. Length 3 feet 10 inches. 



XXI. Stone ends, pottery bottom. Three skulls rested upon many 

 bones. Length 3 feet 4 inches. 



XXII. Pottery bottom. Traces of small skeleton extended. 

 Thus it will be seen how great a variety of burials ma}^ be found 



in a single small cemetery. The bodies, when placed in the graves, 

 were probably wrapped in mats or skins, which have long since 

 disappeared, and in some instances bark may have served as a par- 

 tial lining for the graves. This may explain the peculiar arrange- 

 ment of XVII, XVIII, XIX, and others. The use of fragmentary 

 pottery will recall the similar use of pieces of large vessels b}^ the 

 people who constructed the cemeteries in the vicinity of Nashville. 

 The heads of all the bodies deposited in the graves just described 

 were placed between N. 5° W. and S. 80° W. (magnetic). (Bush- 

 nell, (3), pt. II.) 



About 4 miles northwest of the preceding site, on the right bank 

 of the Meramec, some 3 miles above its junction with the Mississippi, 

 were many other graves, some of which were examined. Two of 

 this group are shown in plate 9, a being that of a small child, with 

 the bottom formed by a single stone; h that of an adult female. 

 Large cemeteries are to be found on the Missouri shore north of the 

 Missouri River, and it is interesting to know that intrusive stone 

 graves were discovered near the summit of the " Big Mound " in 

 St. Louis when it was removed in 1869. 



Now, as to the age of the stone-lined graves. From the account 

 of the old inhabitants in the vicinity of Prairie du Rocher it is quite 

 evident that many in that locality were constructed by members of 

 the Illinois tribes after the middle of the eighteenth century, al- 

 though it is remarkable that objects of European origin are seldom, 

 if ever, met with in burials along the banks of the Mississippi. Nev- 

 ertheless such objects have been discovered in similar graves to the 

 eastward. A large cemetery has been described in the northwestern 

 part of Sullivan County, Indiana, near the left bank of the Wabash. 

 It is said to cover a space 150 feet in width by 650 feet in length. 

 The graves were lined with pieces of sandstone, and when first seen 

 the stones extended above the surface. The bottom of the burials 

 averaged about 2 feet below the surface, and in some graves as many as 

 five skeletons have been revealed. In some of these stone-lined graves 



