Page:Anthropology.djvu/36

Rh also a small piece of galena was exhumed. There was a slight depression on the surface above the deposit. I made an opening 9 feet east of the center, in which was obtained a copper awl or needle 3½ inches long, and three-sixteenths of an inch square, thick in the middle, and sharp pointed at each end. This copper implement was inclosed in some material, which, under a microscope of low magnifying power, has the appearance of being the bark of a tree. This tool lay with the points southwest and northeast. I also found a white-flint spear-point or lance head, 4 inches long and 1½ inches wide, without notches at the base. We found the flint implement about 10 inches southwest of the copper. This was surrounded by the same red material as the first. We first made an opening 14 feet west of the center of this mound, and at a depth of 3 feet 8 inches we found one copper needle or awl, rounded and pointed; three copper beads one-quarter of an inch in diameter and three sixteenths of an inch in length; one piece of copper tubing or bead 1 inch in length and one-quarter of an inch in diameter; one piece of tubing or bead three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and 1 inch in length; one piece 1⅝ inches in length and one-quarter of an inch in diameter; and five other pieces very much like those described; also a small fragment of a tooth supposed to be human, and several small flint pebbles.

There are traces of a breastwork or fort, commencing at the south-western part of this mound, about 6 to 12 inches in height. Commencing at the mound it extends southwest 120 feet, thence south 67 feet, thence south-southeast 106 feet, thence to bluff of Spoon River 130 feet (the bluff is 40 feet high), from the mound to the bluff in a straight line southeast 186 feet.

All the arrow points were finely finished, and far superior to those found on the surface of the ground. This mound is 42 rods west of Spoon River. The bluffs here are composed of the usual yellow clay, and contain very little sand. On the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter section 5 are three common round mounds, standing in a triangular position to each other, with the largest to the north, the next in size directly south of it, and the smallest to the east, somewhat like the following figure:



On or near the southwest corner of section 4, township 11 north of the base line 5, east of the fourth principal meridian, are a series of common round and long mounds of more importance than any other yet discovered in this part of Illinois. (See Fig. 2.) Commencing at a point near the foot of a long bluff sloping to the south, and 40 rods north of the south line of section 4, and 10 rods east of the west line, are three common round mounds. For convenience we have numbered these, commencing with the most westerly. The distance is reckoned from center to center of round mounds, and from end to end of long mounds.