32 BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS. 
terrace some 20 feet or more above a bayou which makes out from the 
Mississippi. It consists chiefly of small circular tumuli, but at the 
north end are four oblong mounds varying in length from 40 to 110 feet 
and in height from 14 to 4 feet; there is also an excavation about 30 
feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, and scattered throughout the group 
are a number of circular earthen rings varying in diameter from 12 to 
30 feet and from 1 to 2 feet in height. 
Quite a number of the circular mounds were opened, but only de- 
tached portions of a skeleton were found in any one, as a skull in one, 
and a leg, arm, or other part in another, four or five adjacent ones appar- 
ently together containing the equivalents of an entire skeleton. Some 
of these bones were charred, and all were inuch decayed, indicating by 
their appearance great age. The inner portion of the mounds consisted 
of hard, compact earth, chiefly clay, resembling in this respect most of 
the burial mounds of this region. 
Unfortunately the examination of this group was too partial and too 
hastily made to enable us to form any theory as to the meaning of this 
singular mode of burial, or even to be satisfied that the idea of our 
assistant in this regard is correct. 
As possibly having some bearing upon the question, the following 
facts relating to another similar group at Eagle Point, three miles above 
Dubuque, are given. 
This group, which is situated on a bluff about 50 feet above high- 
water mark, consists of about seventy mounds, all of which, except two 
oblong ones, are small and conical in form. Eleven of these circular 
tumuli were thoroughly explored, but nothing was found in them except 
some charcoal, stone chips, and fragments of pottery. But in an ex- 
cavation made in the center of along mound just west of the group 
were found two decayed skeletons. Near the breast of one of them 
were a blue stone gorget and five rude stone scrapers; with the other, 
thirty-one fresh-water pearls, perforated and used as beads. Exca- 
vations were made in an oblong and circular mound near the extreme 
point of the bluffs. Each was found to have a central core of very 
hard clay mixed with ashes, so hard in fact that it could only be broken 
up with the pick, when it crumbled like dry lime mortar, and was found 
to be traversed throughout with flattened horizontal cavities. These 
cavities were lined with a peculiar felt-like substance, which Colonel 
Norris, who opened the mounds, was satisfied from all the indications 
pertained to bodies which had been buried here, but from lapse of time 
had entirely crumbled to earth save these little fragments. We are 
therefore perhaps justified in concluding that a more thorough and 
eareful examination of the mounds of the other group would have 
shown that the skeletons had so far decayed as to leave but a small 
part in a mound. Nevertheless it is proper to state that Colonel Norris 
does not coincide with this conclusion, but thinks that the dismembered 
skeletons were buried as found. Possibly he is correct. 
