ANCIENT WORKS IN THE VICINITY OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 19 



ridge having no great breadth or elevation. One circle surrounded a cavity two 

 feet deep, in which was growing a group of basswood-trees {Tilia americana) of 

 large size. There are at this locality two crosses, two oblong and twenty-two cir- 

 cular mounds, and five excavations. 



Although this spot has long since ceased to be the residence of an Indian popu- 

 lation, yet it is annually visited by a few families, and numerous traces of their 

 presence are still visible. Many of the mounds have been opened for the burial of 

 the remains of Indians recently deceased ; and we saw on one mound tliree graves 

 but lately formed. They were secured from the ravages of the wolves and other 

 animals, by logs of wood held in their places by four stakes, in the manner repre- 

 sented on Plate VIII. Only one kind of wood is used on the same grave, there 

 being no mixture of different trees on any. One grave was covered with logs of 

 iron-wood {Ostrya virginica), the other tw^o with those of oak; even the stakes are 

 of the same wood as the logs. These logs were from four to six inches in diameter, 

 and four and a half feet long. The grounds in the neighborhood, and for some 

 distance north and south of the ravines forming the boundaries of the more 

 ancient works, are covered with those common mammillary elevations known as 

 " Indian corn-hills." They are without order of arrangement, being scattered over 

 the surface with the utmost irregularity. That these hillocks were formed in 

 the manner indicated by their name, is inferred from the present custom of the 

 Indians. The corn is planted in the same spot each successive year, and the soil 

 is gradually brought up to the size of a little hill by the annual additions. This 

 is the work of the women. 



At the southern extremity of these remains, another evidence of former cultiva- 

 tion occurs, consisting of low, broad, parallel ridges, as if corn had been planted in 

 drills. They average four feet in width, twenty-five of them having been counted 

 in the space of a hundred feet ; and the depth of the walk between them is about 

 six inches. These appearances, which are here denominated " ancient garden- 

 beds," indicate an earlier and more perfect system of cultivation than that 

 which now prevails ; for the present Indians do not appear to possess the ideas 

 of taste and order necessary to enable them to arrange objects in consecutive rows. 

 Traces of this kind of cultivation, though not very abundant, are found in several 

 other parts of the State. 



But, however ancient these garden-beds may be, they were not made until long 

 after the erection of the earthworks; for, as will be seen (Plate VIII.), they 

 extend across them in the same manner as they do the adjoining grounds. Hence 

 it is evident that this cultivation was not until after the mounds had lost their 

 sacred character in the eyes of the occupants of the soil ; for it can hardly be 

 supposed that works executed with so much care would be thus desecrated by 

 their builders. The original inhabitants must therefore have been succeeded at 

 an early period by probably another race, and the labors of the white man have 

 consequently not alone tended to obliterate these vestiges of an ancient people. 



We have thus traced four probable epochs in the history of this interesting 

 locality. 1st. The period of the mound-builders, who, perhaps, selected it on 

 account of its naturally secure position. 2d. That of the "garden-bed" culti- 



