Ancient Villages Among Emblematic Mounds. 1G5 



village is situated. Between the village and the river the 

 land is low, and so the spot is inaccessible except at one 

 point. At the south of the village site was another small 

 stream, which also heads in the swamp or springy land in 

 the rear of the village. The low land adjoining is covered 

 by a jungle of bushes and small trees, a fit place for the hid- 

 ing of wild animals, but abounding with berries and wild 

 fruit of various kinds. The situation of the village on this 

 rise of ground was remarkable, because the spot was so fav- 

 orable in every respect. The peculiarity of the site is that 

 all the requisites of village life were furnished by it. It is 

 well guarded and drained, is surrounded by forests and 

 prairies, is well situated in relation to the river, the rice 

 swamps, the beaver dam and springs of water, was in a lo- 

 cality where the means of subsistence were furnished in 

 great abundance. Additional to these advantages was the 

 fact that, on the opposite side of the river, less than a mile 

 away, is the high bluff to which we have referred, and on 

 this bluff there proved to be mounds which undoubtedly 

 served as outlooks. The protection of the village was thus 

 secured by the locality as well as the means of subsistence. 

 The situation of the ground on which the village was located 

 was in the midst of swamps and lowlands, which also served 

 for protection. 

 The evidence that this was a village site is as follows: 

 (a.) The selection of the locality with a view to subsist- 

 ence. The place for storing grain was furnished by the 

 hillside to which the approach was easy from the village 

 itself, but was difficult from any other direction. The pres- 

 ence of springs near the village but in the rear of it secured 

 to the inhabitants a supply of water from which they could 

 not well be cut off. The presence of the game-drives shows 

 that the inhabitants depended upon wild game as well as 

 the products of the soil for their subsistence and the marshes 

 in the vicinity abound in wild rice. There may have been 

 the cultivation of maize, but no garden beds have been dis- 

 covered in the vicinity. The means of subsistence were fur- 

 nished by the forest, streams, lakes, and prairies. 



