FOWKE] MOUND NEAR KIMMSWICK, MO. 487 
The question of “how” and “ when ” is still a subject for discus- 
sion; and in the present state of knowledge “ discussion ” will be as 
far as it can go. 
MOUND NEAR KIMMSWICK, MO. 
A mile north of Kimmswick, in Jefferson County, Mo., on land 
belonging to David White, is a remnant of terrace now reduced to 
an area of 3 or 4acres. Rock Creek and a tributary ravine surround 
it on three sides. On the level top is the site of an aboriginal village. 
Casual digging at various places has resulted in the discovery of a 
number of graves, and the usual débris characteristic of a settlement 
appears wherever the soil is disturbed in farming or by relic hunters. 
In this field stood a mound which could never have measured more 
than 5 or 6 feet in height, being now reduced by cultivation to less 
than 2 feet. All of the structure that lay within an elliptical space 
of 32 by 45 feet was removed, to the subsoil. 
Near the south margin of this excavation was a salt pan having 
the shape of a bread bowl; it was 22 inches in diameter and 8 inches 
deep. Although broken to pieces by pressure of the earth, the form 
was still preserved. It had been made on the spot; a basin of the 
proper form was dug and lined with tough blue clay to a thickness 
of an inch to an inch and a half, every part accurately shaped and 
smoothed, to serve as a mold. The pot was built up an inch thick 
inside of this, allowed to dry, and hardened by burning light fuel 
in it or by keeping it filled with live coals. Its rim was on a level 
with the natural surface of the ground. This vessel had no connection 
with the mound; others, similarly constructed, have been found at 
several places in the field around. They were used for producing salt 
from the water of a strong saline spring at the foot of the hill, 
through ordinary evaporation, as there was no way to heat the water 
in the pans unless by the use of hot stones. 
Scattered throughout the space dug were many hundreds of pot- 
tery fragments, most of them apparently thrown in with the earth, 
others on and around patches of burned earth which occurred at all 
levels. With some of these burned masses bones of animals were 
found in such relation to the sherds as to indicate that cooking had 
been done; in other cases the fragments seemed to be parts of vessels 
that had broken in the process of firing. Some of the pieces were 
distinctly glazed, a condition due to the action of the salt made in 
them. Many mussel shells, some bone needles, flint knives, polishers 
for smoothing pottery, stone hammers, and two finely chipped unused 
hoes or hatchets of translucent bluish chert were found loose in the 
earth. At what was probably the original center was a hole 18 inches 
across and 8 inches deep, quite symmetrical in form, and lined with 
