88 "BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



300 yards from the bluff, on a knoll capped with the sandstone ; the 

 others are at the break of the ridge. All have been opened, two of 

 them practically demolished. Those on the end of the ridge are only 

 14 feet apart, measuring from their adjacent margins, and were 

 about 16 and 20 feet in diameter as built, both being somewhat 

 widened now owing to the stones having been thrown outward from 

 the central parts by hunters. Each was probably 3 feet high. 



The smaller, being least defaced and nearly free from timber, was 

 entirely removed, except a small portion along one margin, and the 

 earth beneath it examined down to the bedrock. There was no sign 

 of a wall ; but one that would stand could not be made with stones 

 rounded by weathering. 



Remains of at least three bodies were found. One was laid in a 

 crevice; only a few fragments of the long bones were left. With 

 scraps of bone from another body were four teeth worn almost to 

 the roots. They were not close together, but this was due to small 

 burrowing animals whicli had scattered them. Of the third body, 

 a few pieces of arm and leg bones remained. By itself, loose in the 

 earth, was a single molar, not in the least worn, and with a very small 

 root. 



So far as appearances go, it seems the bodies were laid on out- 

 cropping rock, or in crevices, and stones piled on them without any 

 attempt at order or arrangement. 



The graves on the Helm farm are merely piles of stone, such as 

 are found in various States. Those on the Ross place are of the same 

 type as the cairns on Lost Hill at the mouth of Gourd Creek in 

 Phelps County, but of a more advanced form. In both places flat 

 stones were laid to inclose the burials. At Lost Hill, however, there 

 was seldom more than a single layer, while at the Devil's Elbow a 

 regular wall was built, seven superposed slabs being observed at one 

 point with a certainty that others had been placed above these. 

 They are not of the same class as the walled graves found in earth 

 mounds along the Missouri River. In the latter, the inner face of 

 the wall was as smooth and regular as it could be made, the out- 

 side being rough and upheld by stones and earth piled against them ; 

 while in those on Big Piney care was taken with the outer face 

 which, it seems, was intended to be left exposed to view, while the 

 inside was rough and hidden by stones thrown in. But no inference 

 must be drawn from the different methods of filling or covering the 

 vaults after they were completed. Along the Missouri, earth was 

 abundant right at hand, but stones had, as a rule, to be carried some 

 distance ; while on the bluffs of the Gasconade and its tributaries the 

 reverse was the case. 



