Page:Anthropology.djvu/31

30 Trails.—Thirty years ago there were three distinct trails running across the country. One ran from Maquon, on Spoon River, to Henderson Grove; thence, in a northerly direction, to Galena, on the Mississippi. Another from the mouth of Court Creek, on Spoon River, to the same points. A third trail ran from Maquon north to strike the trail from mouth of Court Creek to Henderson Grove. These two trails met in township 11 north, range 3 east. Along these routes all the specimens sent you were found. Maquon was an Indian settlement on Spoon River. Here, within the memory of our oldest settlers, they had a village, and lived from year to year. There is an old Indian cemetery at this point and another at the mouth of Court Creek. Near the south line of Knox County, half a mile west of Spoon River, there is a group of three mounds, not yet examined, and half a mile further south, in Fulton County, there is another group of three, none of which have been explored.

 

The group of eight mounds described below and represented in the accompanying plan is situated near Bureau, in Bureau County, Illinois, on the bottom lands of the Illinois River and Bureau Creek. The land on which they are located has been farmed about forty years, and the smaller mounds have been considerably reduced. Numbers 1 to 3 are situated on a natural swell, and the diameters can be determined only approximately. These three were explored by the writer and Mr. Sale.

A rectangular opening, 7 feet square, was made in mound No. 1. At a depth of 15 inches a bed of ashes several inches in thickness was reached, which extended in all directions beyond the opening. At a depth of 5 feet a few bones, much decomposed, were found. They were parts of two individuals. A small number of bone awls were lying near them.

A slight dip in the floor of the mound was observed in the northeast 