Page:Anthropology.djvu/56

Rh a trail, but all other marks are now obliterated. Still farther to the south, but whose exact position I did not learn, are several other mounds, which I think have been more or less explored. To the southeast, at a distance of 5 or 6 miles, is a structure known now as "Stone Fort," that is supposed to have been constructed by the Indians, and probably for defensive purposes. This is, or evidently has been, a wall across the neck of a projecting point of rocks, though it is now but a long pile of stone as though a wall had been demolished. Northwest from this mound, some 12 or 15 miles west of Carbondale, are other mounds, while north or northwest of these are others, as though forming a line with those that have been found within the vicinity of East Saint Louis and Alton. All these facts seem to bear more or less directly on the idea that at some time this locality had been a place of general work and resort.

The central part of the mound had been more or less disturbed on top by having been a place where brush and other refuse had been burned, and where hogs had lain and rooted, but it was claimed by Mr. Norbury, the owner of the place, that other than this it had not been disturbed. As intimated before, the mound was composed of the natural black surface soil of the place mingled with chips of flint and broken pieces of pottery, the latter red, the flint of a blue kind, and in all shapes and sizes, but we found no arrow-heads or other implements of the same kind of stone. We found only one arrow-head, and that was of white flint, regular lanceolate shape and about 3 inches long. The pieces of pottery were all small and of irregular shapes. The' only implement found, other than the arrow-head, was a thong-gauge, about 3 inches long by about an inch and a half wide, with two gauge-holes and a slight depression on one side between the holes as though a place for the thumb when used. This was composed of either red stone or pottery; I am inclined to think the first, as it seemed to be too compact for pottery, or at least more so than the broken pieces found.

In the northwest part of the mound was found a skeleton in a horizontal position lying on the back with the head towards the northeast, and about 3½ feet below the top of the mound. The bones were so decomposed that it was with difficulty that a whole one of any part of the skeleton could be taken out without breaking and crumbling, though while in position the shape of the skull indicated that it corresponded with those taken from other mounds at Sand Ridge, this county, and other points in the vicinity.

No other complete skeleton was found in the mound, though pieces of human bones representing nearly all parts of the skeleton were scattered through different parts of the structure, together with the bones of other animals. Of these we could recognize the lower maxillary of deer and the atlas of a bear, but the rest were too much broken to be identified. Besides these there were a few land-shells, a species of helix, and a few broken salt-water shells, perhaps of some species of unio. The scattered