166 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BUi.L. 76 



NEW MADEID COUNTY 



On the farm of A. B. Hunter, 7 miles north of New Madrid, more 

 than 60 of these mounds, irregularly placed, extend for half a mile 

 along the west bank of St. John's Bayou, the extreme width of the 

 group being about 200 yards. The largest mound, standing on the 

 edge of the terrace, was 6 feet high and 75 feet across. On the 

 original surface, over a small area at the central part, were decayed 

 fragments of human bones ; so this was probably erected as a tumu- 

 lus. The others were much smaller; from a foot to 3 feet high, and 

 30 to 50 feet in diameter. Six of these, varying in size from the 

 largest to the smallest, were thoroughly excavated within the orig- 

 inal margin and down to the undisturbed earth beneath them. No 

 artificial object was found in any of them except here and there a 

 fragment of pottery or a small amount of ashes or a piece of char- 

 coal, not intentionally deposited but gathered up and carried in with 

 the earth in the course of construction. There were no distinct fire- 

 beds or ash piles at the bottom, or in any part of the mound; nor 

 were there any holes in which posts may have stood. 



ST. FEANgOIS COUNTY 



Nearly 2 miles south of Farmington, on Quesnel's land, are about 

 30 very small, low mounds, none more than 18 inches high or 25 

 feet across. They are on the general level, some of them on a 

 gentle slope, of the first upland above the St. Frangois River and a 

 mile from that stream at its nearest point. 



Half a mile to the south of these is a group of similar mounds on 

 the farm of Isaac Hoj^kins, on a gently sloping hillside, and from 30 

 to 40 feet above the level of the overflow bottom land. One of these 

 has been gradually worn away b}' the encroachment of a gully until 

 more than half of it has disappeared. While the curvature of its 

 surface is very apparent, and the remnant of its margin sufficiently 

 distinct to show its regularity of outline, careful inspection of the 

 face formed by the erosion fails to reveal any trace of stratification, 

 or line of demarcation between the bottom of the mound and the 

 original surface. There is precisely the same uniformity of change 

 from the grass roots to the underlying gravelly soil that exists in 

 the exposed bank at any point to either side of the mound. Mr. 

 Hopkins, desirous of knowing what might be in the mound, or why 

 it was built, has noted the appearance of the earth from the time the 

 gully reached its margin. At no time has its appearance differed 

 in the least from what it presents now. 



On the river bottom portion of Mr. Hopkins's farm, and on the 

 adjoining Goings and Townshend farms to the southward, are many 

 mounds lying along both sides of the Belmont division of the Iron 



