8 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 



to form the mounds, some of wljich are quite small, not more than one or two 

 feet in height above the original surface of the ground. They are of various 

 dimensions, from five to fifty feet in diameter, and from one to seven feet in height. 

 Many of them are now nearly levelled by the plough. They may still, however, 

 be detected in the cultivated fields by a trifling elevation, or by a slight difference 

 in the color of the soil. In one case, at least, the plough had turned up the bones 

 from beneath. 



The plank road leading from the city to Rochester and Burlington, on the 

 Pishtaka River,^ passes near this great group of ancient mounds. Many of them 

 are on the line of another road, and are levelled from time to time by the in- 

 habitants in working out their road tax, without regard to the sacred deposits they 

 contain ; and in a few years, all traces of them will be gone for ever. This spot 

 was probably the common cemetery for the neighboring tribes, and not their place 

 of residence. Its situation, on the level ground back from the river and bluff, and 

 at the head of a deep and narrow ravine, may be adduced as an evidence of this. 

 The fact that seven bodies were buried in one mound apparently at the same time, 

 and three or more in another, seems to indicate that many died simultaneously by 

 some calamity. 



Subsequently to my visit to this locality, Dr. Hoy informs me that he " had the 

 good fortune to obtain two vases of pottery from one of the mounds. They were 

 in a gravel-pit, two feet and a half below the original surface of the ground, in 

 immediate contact with the fragments of two skeletons much decayed. One is 

 made of cream-colored clay and white sand, quite similar in composition to our 

 pale bricks. It has a nearly uniform thickness of about one-fifth of an inch, and 

 was originally quite smooth and hard. I have so far restored it as to render it a 

 good specimen. It would hold about five quarts, being seven inches in diameter 

 at the mouth, and eleven and a half inches high. The other is of a red, brick 

 color, about half as large, much thicker and coarser, and crumbled a good deal in 

 handling. A considerable portion of gravel was used in connection with the clay 

 in its fabrication." 



Dr. Hoy further adds: "Some workmen, in digging a ditch through a peat 

 swamp, near Racine, found a deposit of disks of hornstone, about thirty in 

 number. They were immediately on the clay at the bottom of the peat, about two 

 feet and a half below the surface. Some of the disks were quite regular ; they 

 vary from half a pound to a pound in weight." 



The following account of the ancient works near Racine, furnished by Dr. Hoy, 

 will be found to contain additional details, with some inferences in regard to their 

 age, and the character of the people who made them. 



" The most numerous and extensive group is situated one mile west of the city. 

 It embraces sepulchral mounds, all small, from one to eight feet high, unaccom- 

 panied by circles, effigies, or other earth-works. The city cemetery, just located, 

 embraces a part of these mounds, which will be preserved, adding not only beauty 

 but interest to the rural spot. 



» Or Fox Elver of the Illinois. 



