W. J. McGee—Artificial Mounds of Northeastern Iowa. 273 
as to lead to the inference that it was designed—partially, at 
least—for defensive purposes. True fortifications, like those 
of Ohio and Kentucky, have not, however, been discovered. 
¢ are never, so far as the experience of the writer 
extends, regularly and methodically arranged. A few burial 
mounds occupy prominent spurs and bluffs overlooking water- 
courses, or other natural elevations. Such mounds usually con- 
tain the remains of but one, or at most a few, bodies, and seem 
to have been used only in exceptional cases. The —— 
grave mounds occur in valleys or on plains, irregularly disposed, 
and each usually contains the remains of several bodies. Imple- 
ments, arms, etc., are not always found associated with the human 
remains in the ¢umulz. In an extensive collection of burial 
mounds opposite Clayton, Iowa, arrow-heads and spear-points 
are often found in such positions as to indicate that they were 
buried within the bodies, A cranium from the same locality 
as a horizontal indented fracture about two inches above and 
