36 



of bones and charcoal, as well as those found on the surface, were 

 scraped up from the site of the cremation, having been left behind 

 when the ashes were gathered for burial, and that they were thrown 

 on the mound with the surrounding earth during the process of its 

 construction. 



In this mound two modes of burial appear to have been simultane- 

 ously practiced, viz : those of inhumation and cremation, unless we are 

 to regard the imperfect skeletons on the floor of the mound as belong- 

 ing to the latter, the operation being but imperfectly performed. The 

 condition of some of the bones hardly justifies such a conclusion. 

 Mounds containing examples, both of inhumation and cremation, were 

 of frequent occurrence in Grreat Britain, and many of them are de- 

 scribed in Mr. Jewett's '•Grrave Mounds and their Contents." The 

 skeleton found nearer the surface was of course deposited at a later 

 date than the others, and may have been an intrusive burial, or it may 

 have been deposited upon the former surface of the mound and the 

 mound afterwards increased in size. The character of the bones 

 themselves must be our only guide in determining this point. The 

 practice of cremation, sufficiently common in ancient times, is still ob- 

 served to some extent by the native races of North America, though 

 entirely foreign to the spirit pervading the funeral rites of modern white 

 races, as is shown by the attention excited by the two or three recent 

 instances of it. A paper, read before the meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, will serve to illustrate 

 this mode. (See p. 58, "American Naturalist," for 1875). Some 

 tablets recently found in a mound in Iowa, by the Rev. J. Gass, give 

 a pictorial illustration of the process. (See p. 109, vol. 2, part 1, 

 Proc. Davenport Academy of Sciences.) 



THE BALDWIN MOUND. 



This mound is located upon the top of a hill lying between the 

 north and east forks of Buck creek at their junction, some eight miles 

 southeast of Urbana and upon the farm of the late Judge Samuel 

 Baldwin. It is nearly conical in shape, about seventy-eight feet in 

 diameter at the base, and fifteen in height. Upon it oak trees of con- 

 siderable size are now standing. The south side of the mound shows 

 evidence that a considerable portion had at some time been removed. 

 I am informed by Mrs. Baldwin that this appearance is due to the 

 fact that the clay from the mound was used to make the brick for the 

 house now standing upon the farm and occupied by Mr. Frank Bald- 



