94 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 



palisades, tliey being twelve feet apart and inclosing ten 

 acres. When the ground was first plowed the burnt stumps 

 of these palisades were turned up. In this fort there were 

 six mounds, the largest of which was opened. 



Near the base there was a layer of ashes beneath which 

 were human bones, many trinkets made of red pipe stone (cat- 

 linite) and a great store of old iron articles consisting of 

 axes, files, knives, etc. (N. Y. Aboriginal Monuments, p. 171.) 



Lewis and Clark speaks of a mound in whicha great chief 

 of the Omahas had been interred. He was buried upon a 

 hill and a mound six feefc in height and twelve feet in diam- 

 eter was erected over him. (Lewis and Clark Travels West 

 of the Mississippi, ISTew York Monuments, p. 107.) 



Beck mentions a large mound on the Osage river which 

 had been erected within the last thirty years by the Osages 

 in honor of a dead chief. (Missouri Gazette, p. 308.) 



James, in 1816, upon what he desmnd good authority, gives 

 an account of the discovery of a new-made mound which, 

 when opened, disclosed the body of a white officer placed in 

 a sitting position on a mat. (James' Expedition, Vol. 2, 

 p. 38.) 



Lapham discovered a mound situated in the town of Oak 

 Creek, Milwaukee County, Wis. 



This isolated mound was six feet in height. The sides 

 were much steeper than an}^ he had seen, which indicated 

 that the mound was comparatively recent. Time sufficient 

 to level down or spread out the mound had not elapsed. 

 (Antiquities of Wisconsin, p. 10.) 



The mounds near Lake Koshkonong, Jefferson county, 

 Wisconsin, are of a recent construction, as proved by the 

 bones being well preserved and containing considerable ani- 

 mal matter. The numerous bone implements and shell beads, 

 wampun are alike well preserved. 



I have studied carefully the large group of mounds situ- 

 ated near Racine, and have excavated fifty of the original 

 one hundred and thirty-eight, which Dr. Lapham and I sur- 

 veyed in ISoO. These Racine mounds being of the oldest 

 type, the bones are entirely destitute of animal matter. I 

 asserted that the specimens exhibited at a meeting of the 



