1880. ] Anthropology. 217 
miles above and east of Muscatine to another like point, and 
down the river, near Toolesboro and New Boston, distant from 
the first point twenty miles, the bluffs (once the Mississippi shore 
line) recede from each other about eight miles, and upon all the 
highest points are found groups of mounds, numbering from two 
to one hundred or more, varying in base diameter from fifteen to 
one hundred and fifty feet, and from two to fifteen feet in height. 
In all there cannot be far from two thousand five hundred mounds.” 
their erection. Among civilized peoples, only the head of the 
family is engaged in active industry; but it is quite possible that 
men, women and children entered with enthusiasm into this 
national work. The papers of Messrs. Jackson, Barber, Robinson 
and Dorsey, are all of permanent ethnological value. Mr. Peet 
will publish also a quarterly, entitled The Oriental Fournal. 
Mr. F, utnam communicated the following note to the 
Boston Society of Natural History, October 15, 1879, on the 
Occurrence of chambered barrows in America: 
“The chambered mounds are situated in the eastern part of 
Clay Co., Missouri, and form a large group on both sides of the 
Missouri river, The chambers are, in the three opened by Mr. Cur- 
tiss, about eight feet square, and from four and a half to five feet 
high, each chamber having a passage-way several feet in length 
and two in width, leading from the southern side, and opening on 
the edge of the mound formed by covering the chamber and 
passage-way with earth. The walls of the chambered passages 
were about two feet thick, vertical, and well made of stones, which 
were evenly laid, without clay or mortar of any kind. The top of 
one of the chambers had a covering of large flat rocks, but the 
others seem to kave been closed over with wood. The chambers 
Were filled with clay which had been burnt, and appeared as if it 
had fallen in from above. The inside walls of the chambers also 
showed signs of fire. Under the burnt clay, in each chamber, were. 
found the remains of several human skeletons, all of which had. 
Curtiss thought that in one chamber he found the remains of five 
skeletons and in another thirteen. With these skeletons there 
aere a few flint implements and minute fragments of vessels of 
clay, m 
“ A large mound near the chambered mounds was also opened, 
but in this no chambers were found. Neither had the bodies been 
burnt. This mound proved remarkably rich in large flint imple- 
ments and also contained well-made pottery and a peculiar 
_,Borget’ of red stone. The connection of the people who placed 
€ ashes of their dead in the stone chambers with those who. o 
“termined,” 
VOL. x1V.—no, ur. 
buried their dead in the earth mounds is of course yet to be 
15 
