518 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



Like the fii-st, this was covered with a deuse growth of brush. The 

 circumference, measuring along the top of the wall, was found to be 

 504 feet. 



The width of entrance in every case means the distance across the 

 opening, half waj' between top and base of the wall. 



It was not practicable to visit the worlis on the west side of the 

 river. 



The statement made that large mounds exist within the iuclosures is 

 an error; there are no mounds anywhere in the neighborhood. 



The wall and ditch in each work are still well defined, being appar- 

 ently very little altered by weather. The works are very much like 

 those of western New York, which are attributed to the Irocjuois, and 

 it is well known that these Indians made frequent forays to this section. 



Two of these works are figured and described in the Smithsonian 

 Eeport for 1884, by Dr. M. L. Leach. 



There are two small mounds in Bellaii'e, Antrim county, that have 

 been examined. They are on a jioiiit — but not at the highest part — 

 that slopes southward to Intermediate river, overlooking a lake on one 

 side and a wide bottom on the other. Both are small, not over i feet 

 high and 20 feet in diameter, and have a small depression or ditch 

 around the base, as if a small amoimt of earth had been scooped up 

 and thrown on the mound after it was about completed. This feature 

 seems common to all the mounds rej)orted in this section. In each was 

 a skeleton in a sitting posture, the feet extended. With the largest 

 was the outer whorl of a Busycou shell, probably used as a cup, the outer 

 surface covered with incised lines crossing at right angles. At what 

 would be the bottom if held level, it was worn nearly through from the 

 outside. The skull was of unusually fine form and texture. 



There are a great many holes on this hill, both above and below the 

 mounds; they are from 3 to 4 feet across, nearly or quite filled with 

 leaves, etc., and some of them have been dug into a depth of 6 feet 

 without reaching the original bottom. They are probably old caches. 



There was no one in the vicinity of the foot of Clam lake who knew 

 anything in i-egard to the earthwork reported there; and the jungle 

 about the i^lace rendered any examination impossible. Neither could 

 anything be learned at Rapid river of a similar earthwoi'k. There are 

 two mounds there, each about 6 feet high and 20 feet in diameter. An 

 old Chii^pewa chief says there was a battle between that tribe and the 

 Sioux a century ago, and that each party erected a mound over its 

 dead. A number of skeletons was found in each. 



From here to Fond du Lac, Minnesota (near Duluth), very diUgent 

 search and inquiry failed to reveal anything whatever of an aboriginal 

 nature, except what is known to pertain to the Indians resident there 

 within the historic i>eriod. There is a mound at Point Iroquois at the 

 head of Ste. Marie river, another at Mille Coquiu, and a third about 



