Tuomas.) THE WELCH MOUNDS, BROWN COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 
and had apparently been used for this purpose. 
41 
These mounds also 
present evidence of the intrusion of an element from one people into 
the country of another. On the farm of Mr. Edward Welch, Brown 
County, Illinois, is the group of mounds shown in Fig. 16. This con- 
sists of conical and pyramidal mounds, 
and the small earthen rings designated 
house sites. The form of the larger 
mounds is shown in Fig. 17. Although 
standing on a bluff some 200 feet above 
the river bottom, it is evident at the first 
glance that these works belong to the 
southern type and were built by the people 
who erected those of the Cahokia group or 
farther south. No opportunity was allowed 
to investigate the burial mounds or house 
sites, but slight explorations made in the 
larger mounds sufficed to reveal the fire- 
beds so common in southern mounds, thus 
confirming the impression given by their 
form. It is probable that these mark the 
point of the extreme northern extension of 
the southern mound-building tribes. A 
colony, probably from the numerous and 
strong tribe located on Cahokia Creek 
around the giant Monk’s mound, pushed 
its way thus far and formed a settlement, 
but, after contending for a time with the 
hostile tribes which pressed upon it from 
the north, was compelled to return towards 
the south. 
Passing to the northeastern portion of 
Missouri, which, as heretofore stated, we 
include in the North Mississippi or Illinois 
district, we find a material change in the 
character of the burial mounds, so marked, 
in fact, that it is very doubtful whether 
they should be embraced in the distriet 
named. Although differing in minor par- 
ticulars, the custom of inclosing the re- 
mains of the dead in some kind of a recep- 
tacle of stone, over which was heaped the 
earth forming the mound, appears to have 
prevailed very generally. 
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The region has been but partially explored, yet it is probable the fol- 
lowing examples will furnish illustrations of most of the types to be 
found in it. 
