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Rh south west to northeast. No. 7 is 75 feet west-northwest of No. 6, and is 104 feet long, 2£ feet high, and 18 feet wide, with the greatest length from southwest to northeast. No. 8 is 100 feet from No. 7, and is 140 feet long, 3 feet high, 20 feet wide. Fifty feet from the south end of this is a black-oak tree, 3 feet in diameter, standing in the middle of the mound. (In accordance with the usual rule in this vicinity of computing sixteen growths to the inch, measuring on one side of the center, this tree was nearly three hundred years old.) This mound is 100 feet west of the bluff of Spoon River. The bluff is 40 feet high at this place, and very precipitous. In company with Mr. W. J. Morris, I made a cross cut in this mound to the original soil. At every spadeful we would bring up flint chips, and we found several pieces of trap-rock, some of them being polished on one side. Around the mound where the surface is bare great quantities of flint chips are picked up. We made a slight examination of Nos. 6 and 7, and found nothing, excepting traces of ashes and charcoal. On opening No. 3, at a depth of 2 feet, we found ashes; at 2½ feet, 6 to 8 inches of charcoal and ashes; at 3 feet, hard-packed earth; at 3 feet 3 inches, two skeletons, all the bones very much decayed, except the teeth, and these were not worn, showing the owners to have been not over thirty years of age. We opened Nos. 1 and 2, and found nothing. All the mounds appear to have been built at the same time, by the same people.

Spoon River at this point is 100 feet wide. We found no depressions whence the material of which these mounds are built was taken.

 

Prof. Joseph Jones has well said that "the fabrics of a people unlock their social history; they speak a language which is silent, but yet more eloquent than the written page."

To every thoughtful person there is a peculiar interest in the remains of nations that have fulfilled their destiny, and passed away; and this interest grows to fascination when studying the works of art, however rude, of people who have disappeared, and left no other legible records of their history and characteristics.

The origin and language of the prehistoric occupants of this region may remain forever unknown to us, and their color and personal appearance be only conjectured; but their implements, utensils, and ornaments, which have escaped the ravages of time, when properly interpreted, repeople our hills and prairies with their ancient inhabitants, and tell us, in language as plain as the written page, the story of their domestic pursuits and arts of life; of their customs, superstitions, and habits of thought.

