WJw Built the Mounds? 97 



them. We, before x-estoring the mound, dug a foot or two in each direc- 

 tion, but found nothing more. 



Very truly yours, Geo. H. West. 



About fifteen years ago, John Elkins, a jeweler of Racine, 

 told me that he had bought a lot of silver trinkets, ear-rings, 

 belt-slides, and a fine double cross. These, he said, were 

 found in a mound situated in a street in Burlington. Sup- 

 posing these things to have been a secondary deposit, I made 

 no especial inquiry at the time. However, when I received 

 the report from Mr. West of the Raymond mounds, I deter- 

 mined to investigate the Burlington mounds. With this 

 object in view I attended a meeting of the old settlers asso- 

 ciation, held in a grove near the village of Burlington, Racine 

 Co., Wis. I called upon F. S. Perkins, who accompanied me 

 to the grove to assist in finding the old Burlington pioneers. 

 We found many who knew that a mound had been removed 

 and that there were lots of silver trinkets and some brass 

 kettles found, but they could give me no further informa- 

 tion. They all, however, told me to write to Nathaniel Dick- 

 inson, of Elkhorn, Wis., and that I would get a prompt reply, 

 and he would give me all the facts as accurately as if the 

 event was of last week, being a man of extraordinary mem- 

 ory. I wrote to him, and on the third day received a reply 

 as follows : 



Elkhorn, Wisconsin, June 26, 1881. 

 Dr. p. R. Hoy: 



Dear Sir — There were originally three mounds situated near the junc- 

 tion of the White and Fox rivers. In seasons of freshets the locality of 

 cnese mounds was covered with water. They occupied an irregeilar tri- 

 angle, four to frix- rods apart". 



The mounds in shape were each a section of a sphere. The two smaller 

 ones were three feet in height and fifteen feet in diameter at the base. 

 The remaining one was mueh larger, being six feet in elevation by twenty 

 in diameter. They were composed of the surface sandy loam and ap- 

 parently built without extended intermissiou of time. 



In the fall of 1852, I was road commissioner and built a wooden bridge 

 over White river, near where it joins the Fox. Thi« bi-iige has since given 

 p'ace to one of iron. R quiring some earth for filling the approacti I re- 

 moved one of the small mounds tliat stood on the street. 



When we came to the original surface, we 'ound the shape of four per- 

 sons, two adults and two children. Each was covered with a thick 



