72 



MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



iiial surface to the depth of a foot or 18 inches. In this vault or grave 

 was a skeleton very well preserved, doubled up and lying on the right 

 side, at the depth of 4 feet from the top of the mound. The vault was 

 covered very carefully with flat limestones like those of which the wall 

 was built. No implements, ornaments, or relics of aiiy kind were found. 

 Xo. 11 was about the same size as No. 4. Lying on the natural sur- 

 face of the ground near the center were four large flat stones, placed 

 so as to tbrm a square. These bore distinct evidences of having been 

 burned. In the area between them lay a single skeleton, folded and 

 placed on its side. There were coals and ashes immediately about and 

 on the stones, but none in direct contact with the skeleton. 



Mound No. 12 was like No. 4 throughout, with stone vault and single 

 skeleton, differing only in the fact that the skeleton was stretched out 



horizontally and that the covering 

 of stones over the vault was less 

 complete. 



No. 16, though a small mound 

 only 17 feet in diameter and 2J feet 

 high, presented some interesting 

 features. It also contained an 

 incomplete stone vault (Fig. 31), 

 which, though only about 3i feet 

 wide, and of the form shown in the 

 flgure, extended from the top of 

 the mound down a foot or more 

 below the natural surface of the 

 ground. This contained a single 

 skeleton in a half upright position, 

 the head being only about 2 feet 

 below the surface of the mound 

 while the feet were down some 3i or 4 feet below the surface, or nearly 

 2 feet lower than the head. The head was southwest, the feet north- 

 east. Near the right hip was a discoidal stone. There were no traces 

 of coals or ashes in this mound. 



No. 30 contained neither stones, vault, nor skeleton, the only things 

 found in it were a few badly decayed Unio shells near the bottom. 



THE FLfCKE MOUNDS. 



This group, shown on plat (PI. i) in connection with the Vilas 

 group, is on the farm of Mr. Joseph Fliicke, 2 miles south of Prairie du 

 Chien, and in the vicinity of the Vilas group. It contains twelve cir- 

 cular mounds, the relative positions of which are shown in the flgure. 

 Of these, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were opened with the following 

 result : 



No. 1, 05 feet in diameter and 6 feet high, was composed of dark, 

 sandy soil throughout, except near the bottom, where there were some 



Fig. 31. 



-Mound No. 16 (horizontal section), Po- 

 lander group. 



