NO. 15 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1 92 1 



105 



This is a view over the plain once occupied by a native village and 

 shows the bluffs in the distance. Fragmentary pottery and objects of 

 stone are now found scattered over the intervening ground. 



As has been mentioned, and as is shown on the map, a conical mound 

 stands on the bluff just east of the main group. It is not on the 

 highest point, not on the summit, but on a commanding spot visible 

 from miles away, north and south, and from far westward across the 

 Mississippi. It is on the bluff' in the exact middle of figure io8, and a 

 closer view, taken from the south, is shown in figure 109. This 

 resembles the two mounds on the bluff's northeast of Cahokia and 

 is of equal interest. 



Fic. 109. — Conical mound on bluff east of Bixby. 



No Other area of equal size in the entire valley of the Mississippi 

 appears to have been of so great importance to the native tribes as that 

 mentioned in this sketch. Here they reared their greatest monument, 

 Cahokia, and surrounded it with many lesser works. The several 

 distinct clusters should be considered units of a greater group, in 

 which the massive terraced work stood as the central structure. This 

 was the gathering place of a numerous people, but when or whence 

 they came can never be known. Now, two and one-half centuries 

 after the region was first entered by the French, at which time Illinois 

 tribes were occupying small villages near the banks of the Mississippi, 

 the majority of the ancient mounds have disappeared, but Cahokia 

 remains and it should ever stand. It must be saved as have the 

 pyramids of Egypt ; a monument of another race whose origin is 

 shrouded in mvsterv. 



