1883.] Indian Stone Graves. 131 
A very good account of an exploration of stone graves in the 
neighborhood of Prairie du Rocher, in Randolph county, Illinois, 
was given, many years ago, by Dr. A. Wislizenus, of St Louis." 
He examined eleven of these graves, which he describes in 
proper succession, closing with a résumé of his investigation. 
“The general construction of these graves,” he says, “is coffin- 
like, their side-walls, top and bottom, being formed by flat lime- 
stohes, joined together without cement. The size of the graves 
was adapted to that of the persons to be buried in them. We find 
them, therefore, in length, from 1% to 7 feet; in width, from I 
to 11% feet; and, in depth, from 1 to 1% feet. The top-layer of 
stones is seldom deeper than half a foot below the ground.” -The 
graves are always close together, but there is no apparent order 
in their position or direction. He counted from twenty to a hun- 
dred graves in different burying-grounds, which are always situ- 
ated on some elevation, slight as it may be. The bluff-formation: 
of that region facilitated the selection of proper sites. In graves 
which had not been disturbed he found the skeletons stretched 
out at their natural length and lying on the back. The artefacts 
accompanying the human remains were pointed flints, stone toma- 
awks, bone implements, marine shells (Pyrula, Marginella), fluvi- 
atile shells, and pottery, which, he thinks, “ shows more expert- 
ness in that art than the present Indians possess.” No metallic 
. object was met with by Dr. Wislizenus. 
He obtained but four well-preserved skulls, which he presented 
to the late Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia, for his 
craniological collection. “ All of them,” he says, “ bear the un- 
mistakable signs of the American race, to wit: the broad massive 
lower jaw, high cheek-bones, salient nose, full superciliary ridge, 
low forehead, prominent vertex, and flattened occiput.” 
Dr. Morton, it is well known, divides the American race into 
two families, according to cranial formation, namely, the Toltecan, 
comprising the formerly half-civilized peoples of America, such 
es the Mexicans, Central Americans, Peruvians, Muyscas of Bo- 
7 as, and others, and the much more numerous American, in- 
cluding all barbarous tribes of the new world, excepting the 
inhabitants of the polar regions, to whom he ascribes a Mongo- 
Peige; t Indian Stone Graves in Illinois, in : Transactions of the Academy 
Go 1843, on : 2 Louis, Vol. I (1857), p- 66, etc. —The exploration had taken place 
e 
