10 ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 



different state of preservation, and are mostly found in an extended posture. All 

 the primitive crania were crushed and flattened by the Aveight of the superincum- 

 bent materials. In two instances, however, I succeeded, by great care and labor, 

 in restoring these flattened fragments to their original shape. One of them is 

 represented on Plate LIII. It was found in one of the mounds of the crowded 

 group on the north side of the river. The two are much alike, and quite different 

 in several particulars from the various Indian crania that I have examined. The 

 zygomatic arch has not the same projection, the angle of the cheek-bone is more 

 obtuse, and the orbits are rather less angular than in the modern Indian. The 

 heavy, projecting jaw, and the flattened occiput, are quite characteristic of these 

 ancient mound skulls. Facial angle, 76°. Internal capacity, eighty cubic inches. 



"No implements or ornaments were observed in the mounds, excepting in three 

 instances, in which rude pottery was found. The shape of the pots is precisely 

 similar to those said to be used by the Burmese for all culinary operations. 

 They place three stones in a triangle to support the pot in a perpendicular 

 position. 



" The disks of hornstone were obtained while digging a ditch through a peat 

 swamp one-fourth of a mile south of the mounds represented on the plate. (Plate 

 II.) About forty were taken out. They were situated immediately on the clay 

 stratum, underneath the peat, which was two feet thick at this point. A number 

 of arrow-heads and stone axes have been found in the vicinity. 



" In regard to the antiquity of the works at Kacine, it may be stated that, 

 on the mound from which I obtained the pottery, there was a burr-oak stump 

 (Quercus macrocarpa) , which contained two hundred and fifty rings; and the tree 

 was cut ten years since, when the land was first occupied. Near this I excavated 

 another mound, on the centre of which were the remains of a large stump which 

 must have been much older. Immediately under the centre of this stump I 

 obtained the cranium before mentioned. A stump on the long mound at A 

 (Plate II.) has 310 rings ; and near by are the remains of a large tree, and an oak 

 stump five feet in diameter. These facts indicate an antiquity of at least a 

 thousand years. 



"In conclusion, I must remark that whatever be the legitimate inference 

 drawn from similar works and remains in other places, concerning the state of 

 civilization attained by the mound-builders, the evidence here goes to prove that 

 they were an extremely barbarous people, in no respect superior to most of the 

 savage tribes of the modern Indians." 



Much care has been taken to present an exact figure of the skull discovered by 

 Dr. Hoy, which he proposes to contribute to the museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Between Racine and Milwaukee we found a single mound, which was six feet 

 high, and the remains of one or two more about half a mile below the place where 

 the main road crosses Oak Creek. This mound was more than usually steep on 

 its sides, and may consequently be supposed to be of recent origin, time not having 

 levelled it down as much as those of greater antiquity. A mound that had been 



