■iHujiAs.l INDIANS AND EUROPEANS. 717 



wliites. Add to this the farther statemeut that ■' an oxide remained of 

 a siuiihir .shape and size," and the e\idenee i.s too strong' to be set aside 

 by a. mere opinion. Moreover, his statement that "no iion Mas fonnd" 

 shows careful observation and a desire to state precisely what he saw. 

 As hunting knives witli deer-horn handles and silver ferules were com- 

 mon in the days of the first .settlement of the country, there would be 

 no hesitancy in accepting the statement where there is a willingness to 

 admit that the niound was built after the advent of the whites. 



It is a very bold assumption that a man of Atwater's attainments 

 and experience as an antiquarian would take iron-coh)red clay for a 

 plate of oxidized iron. He does not say that it was cast iron, but, that 

 before being disturbed by the s])ade it '' resembled a plate of cast 

 iron."' We therefore feel fully justified in giving this mound as one 

 examj)lc where evidence of contact with European civilization was 

 found. 



The following examples arc taken from Dr. P. E. Hoy's paper enti- 

 tled '• Who built the Mounds ?'" • 



.lames Matluw, a biutUer iil' lv:'V. Father Mathew. uf Raoiue, settled on Zumliro 

 river in Olmstead comity, Miuuesota, in IStiO. When he first plowed the land there 

 w.as a mimud 6 I'eet high anil I'O feet in breadth, and so situated that it was in the 

 way of iiroperly cultivating- the land, so he made an attempt to plow it down. He 

 sank the plow to the beam repeatedly, but succeeded in reducing the height ouly 

 about 2 feet. The next year he procured a scraper and went to work .systematically 

 to remove the entire mound. After scraping down the eminen<e to within alvout 2 

 feet of the base he came to some rotten wood. On carefully removing the top he 

 discovered a kind of cage built of large stakes driven into the ground, as close 

 together as possible, and covered with a split log, finished liy plastering tlio outside 

 thickly with clay, this forming a rude lodge whidi was about 3 feet limg and a little 

 less in breadth. In this pen he found one skeleton of an adult in a good state of 

 preservation, and with tlie bones were found two iron hatchets, a dozen flint arrow 

 heads, a copper ring 2 inchi-s in di.iincter. a lot of shell beads, au<l a red st(uie pipe 

 of rather large size and ingeniously ornamented with lead. Fatlier Mathew visited 

 his brother a few days after this tinil. On his return he brought the entire lot of 

 implements home with liim. 



From Mr. West, an intelligent and reliable gentleman of Kacine, Wis- 

 consin, Dr. Hoy received an accurate description of a mound opened. 

 From this it appears that the mound was small, being ouly about 10 

 feet in diameter and 2.^ feet high. The much decayed skeleton was in 

 a pit in the original soil under tiie mound, and near the center was a 

 copper kettle. " This kettle was about inches across, with straight 

 sides; it had ears and uo bale, and, in one place on its .side where there 

 had been a hole, there was a rivet inserted, made of copper.'" 



He mentions other mounds situated near the Junction of Wiiite and 

 Fox ri\ers, in one of which had been buried on the original surface of 

 the ground four persons, two adults and two children. •' Each was 

 covered," continues the account, '' with a thick stratum of compact 



' Ri^.nd liefore the Moutreal meeting (1882) of the Amer. As-soc. Adv. Sci., but imlilishuil in j)iimi>h- 

 li't fcirni. 



