192 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



■of these stones were flat, while others were irregular in shape, and 

 bear indications of having been obtained from the limestone 

 quarry along the shore of the lake, where the water had worn 

 away portions of them. Underneath this course of earth there 

 was a layer of yellow clay, about four feet in depth, through 

 which a similar course of stones, arranged in a semi-circular man- 

 ner, and passing off to the opposite side of the shaft, were en- 

 countered. Another layer of black earth was found underneath 

 this course of yellow clay, about five and a half feet in depth, 

 after removing two feet of this deposit, ashes, charcoal, and de- 

 cayed wood, with small pieces of flint were discovered, A few 

 stones were removed directly below these, and the earth under- 

 neath was so hard and dry, that it had the appearance of having 

 been baked, another foot of earth was then removed, when the 

 skeleton of an adult mound-builder was discovered in a sitting 

 posture, at the southeastern corner of the shaft, several pieces 

 of the cranium, vertebra, the body of the inferior maxillary, 

 with the alveolar process quite complete, ribs, and bones of the 

 extreraeties were found, but none of them were wholly perfect. 

 Where the cranium had lain, there was a perfectly formed 

 mould, but only a few pieces of the bones were found. Had I 

 thought to measure this mould I could have obtained some idea 

 of the dimensions of the skull. The vertebra were very large 

 and indicated the existence of a race larger than the Indian ; of 

 the bones of the upper extremity that were found, that of the 

 humerus presented a feature which is regarded as characteristic of 

 the ancient Mound-builder. There was a perforation through its 

 inferior extremity, as shown in the accompanying illustration. In 

 all instances where the inferior extremity of the humerus has 

 been found in mounds, this perforation has been observed to exist, 

 and hence it may be called a natural communication existing 

 between the olecranon depression on the one side and the coronal 

 and radial depression on the opposite side, in the humerus of the 

 Mound-builder. This perforation is found to exist in the chim- 

 panzee, ape and other animals, who go about on all four of their 

 extremities. 



As shown in the accompanying illustration, the specimen found 



