ANCIENT WORKS NEAR ROCK RIVER. 39 



circular and oblong elevations, and one called " the cross." (See Plate XXXT, 

 Nos. 2 and 3.) This last is certainly entitled to the name, from its striking resem- 

 blance to the cross as emblematically used and represented by the Roman Church 

 in every part of the world ; and yet there can be no doubt that this mound was 

 erected long before the first Jesuits visited this country, and spread the doctrines, 

 and presented the emblem of the Christian faith. 



The ground here is high, and there are ridges running along the plain, as shown 

 on the map. An excavation had been made in the cross at the intersection of the 

 arms, and bones found of a large size, probably of some Indian who had been buried 

 there. 



Mr. Miller, who resides near here, gave us a stone instrument, called by him a 

 "skinner;" for, said he, "I have seen the Indians use a similar instrument in skin- 

 ning a deer in the State of New York." It is a beautiful green stone, well polished 

 towards the sharp end, showing, perhaps, that it had been much used. 



The place just above the village, called Fort Hill, has on it two oblong embank- 

 ments, but bears no resemblance to a work of defence. 



Fig. 12. 



Lapham's Peak (as seen from the south). 



North of Merton we left the main road to ascend a very high, conical, isolated 

 peak (on section fifteen, township eight, range eighteen), in the west part of Wash- 

 ington county. It is composed of drift materials, no solid rock being observed. 

 Towards the summit gravel only is found, the pebbles being mostly limestone. In 

 its general appeai\ince this peak resembles the Blue Mounds in the mineral 

 region further west, though on a smaller scale. (See Fig. 12.) We found three 

 artificial mounds occupying the whole of the narrow summit of this remarkable 

 peak, as shown in the figure. (Fig. 13.) The middle and largest of these was 



Enlarged Tiew of thu .Suiumii ^aa seen from the west). 



opened, and proved to be composed of black vegetable mould, covering a base of 

 stone ; but nothing could be found to show for what purposes they were erected. 

 Whatever these purposes may have been, they were clearly of much importance to 

 those who built the mounds ; for the labor of transporting the stone and soil from 

 the plain below up so steep an ascent, must have been very considerable, and not 

 likely to be undertaken for any trivial object. The central mound was six feet in 

 height; the others, four. 



