FISH S CAVE. 



107 



Upon tbe terrace below these mounds, where the railroad track has 

 been graded lengthwise, was a line of comparatively large mounds, the 

 remaining portions of which show that, although from to 15 feet 

 high, and composed mainly of sand similar to that around them, they 

 had a hard central core of clay mixed with ashes, from 2 to 4 feet high, 

 under which was generally found at least one skeleton. Several stone 

 hatchets, arrow and spear heads, and a few copper chisels, were found 

 by the first explorers. One of the mounds, 32 feet in diameter and 8 

 feet high, contained a walled circular vault, represented in Fig. 50; 

 this, like the stonework in the furnaces, did not have the true arch, 

 but, as the main portion of it, which still remains standing shows, it 

 was built of Hat stones, and gradually lessened in diameter as it rose. 



Fig. 50. — Walled mound. Fish eroup, Allamakee county, Iowa. 



being covered at the top by a single stone. It contained a single adult 

 skeleton in a squatting posture, with which was a small earthen vase 

 of the usual globular form. 



KISH'S CAVE. 



This is simply a fissure in the vertical face of the sandstone bluff 

 facing the Mississippi, about miles south of New Albin, which by the 

 action of the river or other means has been enlarged to a cave or rock 

 house 40 or 50 feet long and 12 feet high. The elevation is so little 

 above the Missis.sippi that it must be at least partially flooded during 

 high water. Tbe walls and ceiling are literally covered with rude etch- 

 ings, representing quadrupeds, birds, turtles, bird tracks, totems, and 

 symbolic or fanciful objects. These figures range in length from 2 or 

 3 inches to 2 or 3 feet, and proportionally in width, and are cut into 

 the soft rock from one-fourth to a full inch in depth, the width of the 

 lines exceeding their depth. The width of these lines appears to have 

 been increased by a crumbling process which must have gone on for a 

 time after they were cut, but was checked by the formation of a dark- 

 colored and hard crust over the surface, which now protects them.' 

 The floor was covered to the depth of 2 feet with a mass of refuse mate- 

 rial consisting of fish and other animal bones, fragments of pottery and 

 stcne, charcoal, and ashes mingled with dirt. 



'A tracing of the figures was made and handed to Col. Garrick Mallery, for use iu 

 his study of Sign Language. 



