358 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Dr. McGuire, Ellicott City, Indiana, said he had endeavored to discover 

 how the hammers were grooved, and had been successful. 



A STONE GRAVE IN ILLINOIS. 



The session resumed at 2:30 o'clock P. M. The first paper read was by Mr. 

 Charles Rau, Washington, U. S., on "A Stone Grave in Illinois," the following 

 being a brief summary: There seems to be a general impression that the so- 

 'called stone graves, so frequent in some States of the Mississippi Valley, belong 

 to a remote period, at least to a time long anteceding the arrival of the whites 

 in North America. In 1861, while engaged in the investigations into stone 

 graves, he visited the farm of Dr. Shoemaker, near Columbus, Illinoes. There 

 he saw an empty stone grave, until lately the lasf resting place of a Kickapoo In- 

 dian. He could assert that the grave differed in no way from others seen by 

 him in the neighborhood. In the early part of this century, the Kickapoos in- 

 habited the country bordering on the central waters of the Illinois, but they 

 roamed over the whole territory now forming that State and far beyond it. Mr. 

 John D. Hunter, who lived many years among the Kickapoos, says burial is per- 

 formed differently, not only by different tribes, but by the individuals of the same 

 tribe. The body is sometimes placed on the surface of the ground, between flat 

 stones set edge upwards, and then covered over, first by similar stones, and then 

 with earth brought a short distance. It appears to me that the stone graves owe 

 their origin to the race inhabiting within historical times, or even earlier, the dis- 

 tricts where they are found. The method of burial, very simple in itself, was 

 suggested by the facility of obtaining flag-stones suitable for the construction of 

 these primitive coffins, which protected the dead most effectually from the attack 

 of wild beasts. If, finally, due consideration is given to the circumstance that 

 the articles found in the graves in question evince no higher skill than that at- 

 tained by the more advanced of the historically known tribes of North American 

 Indian, there hardly remains any reasonable ground for not ascribing to such 

 tribes the humbler mortuary receptacles treated in this hasty sketch. 



Mr. Hardy, of Indiana, described a mound which had been opened in his 

 neighborhood. 



Prof. Townshend, of Columbus, Ohio, mentioned the fact that an old grave 

 had been opened in Ohio. The skeletons of a male and female were in it. Un- 

 der the head of the male was a stone disc which identified the skeleton with an- 

 other race of people. It is about fifteen inches in diameter, made of limestone, 

 and thoroughly figured on one side with little squares. 



Rev. Joshua Anderson, of Waterbury, Conn., said there was no reason to 

 suppose that the American Indians did not extend back a good many hundred 

 years. 



The Chairman said it was not wise to come to hasty conclusions in this mat- 



