rer ee oy ce ee we 
Rs eS eee ae f 
1886. | Western Indiana more than 300 years ago. 349 
of ground. I noticed that they all indicated that the storm which 
caused them was going to the north-east. When a tree is blown 
down the roots hold two to five cubic yards of earth in their 
grasp, which makes a corresponding pit where the tree stood ; 
after the fallen tree has entirely rotted, the earth held by the roots 
leaves a mound resembling an old grave, and have been very 
commonly called by people here, “Indian graves.” The mound 
is always on the side of the pit toward which the tree fell. 
This storm track was about one thousand feet wide. I at that 
time followed it nearly one mile. Just before I ceased tracing it 
I found the stump of a white oak, cut down during the year 1884, 
standing on top of one of the tree graves or mounds, I counted 
the rings of growth and found it to have been two hundred and 
ninety-seven (297) years old. That settled the fact that the storm 
had passed over the ground at least three hundred and ten years 
before ; for the acorn could not sprout on the mound until the — > 
tree had first been blown down; and second, it could not sprout 
till the fallen tree had also rotted away, and left the mound suffi- 
ciently flattened for moisture to rise to its top surface. 
- On the 18th of May following I was surveying in Section 29 
and 30, Township 15 north, of Range 8 west (which surveyors in 
the West will understand is about three miles to the south-west of 
the first place mentioned). Here I also found the tree graves as 
thick as the grown trees now are, and they also indicated that the 
storm which blew down the trees which made these tree graves, 
was going to the north-east. A moment’s reflection also showed 
me that this was on the same line or track of the one first ob- 
served. 
After I returned home I placed a string on my county map so 
as to cover these two locations, and noted carefully what points > 
across the county the string touched. I noticed that by extend- | 
ing the string south-westward it passed about one-half to three- 
quarters of a mile to the right of Clinton, in the south end of ` 
_ Vermilion county, which adjoins this county on the west, the — 
_ Wabash river lying between them. Clinton stands on the west — 
- bank of this river. I at once remembered that when a boy in my 
farly “teens” I had lived with a Dr. Kile, two and a half miles 
South-west of Clinton, and in my frequent trips to town I often A 
noticed the tree graves, which in my simplicity then I suppo: 
to be in fact real “ Injun graves.” They were very numer sa 
