January, 1900. Doerflinger and Brown— Effigy Mounds. 
13 
pany, for the purpose of excavating the supposed burial mound 
No. 3. Trenches from 3 to 4 feet in width, and extending down to 
the original surface of the ground, were carefully dug from end to 
end and side to side, but nothing of scientific interest or value was 
unearthed, the former contents, whatever their nature, had long 
succumbed to the moisture of the earth and absorbent root growths 
which have penetrated this mound on all sides. This negative 
result was anticipated as a possibility or probability, and was 
therefore no disappointment. 
The original surface on which the mound has been erected, is 
composed of yellow, ochreous clay and gravel, covered with two or 
three inches of vegetable loam, presenting no appearance of having 
ever been disturbed. (See plate II.) 
At (A) for a depth of about 12 inches is a layer of rich, black 
loam. At (B) is a layer, about 5 inches in depth, of very black 
soil of a rather hard consistency when first cut mto, having much 
the appearance of being composed of a mixture of sand and char- 
coal, which, when exposed to the atmosphere, quickly turns to an 
ashy grey color, and readily loses its hard consistency. Overlying 
this at (C) is a layer oi black, loamy soil similar to that at (A) 
and about 24 inches in thickness. The whole is surmounted by a 
layer of about 3 inches of recent loam. Mixed with the soil in the 
layers (A and C) w^ere a number of angular fragments of yellow 
chert, none of them showing, however, the slightest indication of 
having ever been worked. The only relics that came to light dur- 
ing the excavation, were a small, triangular, incomplete, chipped 
arrow point of almost white chert, and a bone of about 12 square 
inches surface that was identified by a physician present as a 
human cheek bone. Both these objects were found very near the 
surface by persons not members of the exploring party and their 
condition gave color to the suspicion expressed as to their an- 
tiquity. 
Dr. I. A. Lapham, in describing and picturing effigies similar 
in outline to those comprised in the present group from this and 
other localities in the state, characterized them as 'iizard" mounds, 
a designation which has subjected him to frequent criticism, even 
during the period of his own life, and to which he briefly refers 
in his great work. 
It will be noted in regard to the examples of this well-known 
type in our own and other groups formerly existing in this vicin- 
ity, that there is no distinct head visible, the head and fore limbs 
giving the appearance of having been moulded into one. 
Whether this distortion be the work of intention or is merely 
due to the leveling influence of time and weather, we are only able 
