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SOME ABORIGINAL SITES. 503 
MOUNDS ON THE HUNTER PLACE, New MADRID County, Mo. 
In a cultivated field about 2 miles in a westerly direction from the town of 
Linda, Mo., on property belonging to the Hon. William Hunter, of Benton, Mo., 
whose courtesy to the Academy we already have had occasion to mention in 
this report, is a mound slightly more than 4 feet in height and about 70 feet across 
its irregularly circular base. This mound has been much trampled by cattle, 
and to add to its unsymmetrical appearance, a considerable hole, remaining 
unfilled, had been dug into one side of it. An excavation carried down between 
recent burials yielded nothing in the way of aboriginal interments or artifacts. 
Another mound on the same property, said to be filled with recent burials. 
was not visited by us. 
MOUNDS NEAR New MADRID, New Mapri County, Mo. 
The group of mounds on this famous site near New Madrid, on property of 
Hon. L. A. Lewis, of that place, was reached by us by tying our steamer about 
one mile below New Madrid, at the foot of Church road, and following this 
highway about 1.5 mile inland, where the mounds are in full view. 
The group consists of a large mound and, all in sight from one another, a 
small mound of the domiciliary class, presumably, only a few yards from the 
large mound, and eight remainders of mounds with circular bases, in a field in 
whose cultivation they are included. This field borders the two larger mounds 
which have not been under cultivation. 
The principal mound, originally quadrilateral, no doubt, whose sides about 
face the cardinal points, is somewhat more than 17 feet in height. Its diameters 
of base are, №. and S., 255 feet, and 200 feet E. and W. The diameters of the 
summit-plateau, in the same directions, respectively, are 170 feet and 120 feet. 
The neighboring domiciliary mound is 7 feet in height. Its sides are greatly 
worn and its basal measurements would be hard to determine. On its summit- 
plateau and all over that of the great mound are many modern burials, some 
of whose head-stones are of very recent date. Digging into these mounds 
seemed out of the question, and judging from their shape, we suffered but little 
disappointment at the deprivation. 
Across the greater mound a trench had been made about E. and W., the 
original depth of which cannot now be determined. At present it is about 5 feet 
deep. It is said to have been made in 1858 with the aid of slaves driving mules 
hauling scoops, and that enough pots were found “to fill à museum." The soil 
around the mound (itself of elay) is sandy and readily prodded and dug, and we 
are strongly of the opinion that collections of pottery taken from cemeteries in 
the level ground, and perhaps from the low mounds of the group, have been, 
in the course of years, credited to the large mound. 
We learn that for years the site has yielded nothing in the way of Indian 
relies during its extensive cultivation. 
