THUMAS.J 



THE MKYEKS MOUNDS. 



193 



two points. Tliey areoutlie highest ground in that immediate section 

 and fronting- a cypress swamp. One is double or terraced, and tlie 

 other much lower and oval in outline. The latter is 73 feet long, oti 

 feet broad, and 10 feet high, sides straight, but the ends rounded and 

 flat on top, where Mr. John Meyers, the owner, has placed his dwelling- 

 house. The large one (Fig. 106) consists of a higher portion or main 

 part, which is pyramidal in 

 form, 5(t feet scjuare on the level 

 top, and 25 feet high, and a 

 level terrace 03 feet long, .50 

 feet broad, and 15 feet high, 

 extending northward. 



A regular ancient cemetery 

 which had been worked over by 

 previous explorers, was found 

 about 100 yards east of the 

 main works. The area around 

 the large mound, to the extent 

 of several acres, except a small 

 spot on the north side near the 

 swamp, was formerly thickly 

 covered over with small circu- 

 lar depressions or house sites, but these are now mostly obliterated by 

 cultivation. 



yeveral low UKtunds in the vicinity had been so thoroughly upturned 

 as to be now barely traceable. As a matter of course nothing was 

 found ill these l)ut the fragments left by others; but in excavations 

 made in otlier parts of the farm several vessels and inniges of pottery 

 of the character and designs common in this section were obtained. 

 No indications of a surrounding wall were observed. 



PLAN 



SECTION 



Flu. 106 Meyers' mouud. Scutt coimty, Missouri. 



BUTLEK (U)UNTY. 



Along the railroad from St. L(^uis to Iron mountain few mounds were 

 observed, but from there to Poplar bluff they are numerous on the low 

 valley lands, almost always circular in form, from 30 to .50 feet in diam 

 eter, and from 3 to 4 feet high. So far as they have been opened, little 

 else has been found in them than decaying human bones, often com- 

 mingled with charcoal and ashes, and occasionally fragments of pot- 

 tery. 



Four ot this class found on the bottoms of Big Black river, about 2 

 miles above Poplar bluft', were exploied. They, like many others of 

 similar appearance, are on land subject to overflow at ordinary iugh 

 water. All are circular and some of them very flat, those excavated 

 being the highest and situ;ited in the midst of a dense growth of 

 swamp oak, ash, elm, and other timber growing on the mounds the 

 same as elsewhere. 

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