Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/66

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI gether iu numbers. Not many are solitary. Often one large mound is surrounded by many smaller ones. Sometimes a number of larger ones are found near together. It is the all but universal rule that they are not found singly. In some eases the group of mounds is surrounded by a wall. Mention is made elsewhere of a group in New filadrid county around which a wall of some height was con- structed. Beckwith, in his history of the In- dians of Missouri, mentions another similar group in Mississippi county vhich is also in- closed within a wall. On Bayou St. John, about eighteen miles from New Madrid, is a group of interesting mounds. They lie on the west side of the baj'ou and are situated on the sloping ground that rises from the bayou to the prairie laud above. It seems that iu early times an area of about fifty acres was here inclosed by a wall. This wall may be traced in part yet, though much of it has disappeared. It is from three to five feet in height and about fifteen thick at the base. It is built of earth. Inside the inclosure made by this wall and near its western side is an oblong mound about three hundred feet long by one hundred in width and twenty feet high. Near this movind is a depression in the earth about ten feet in depth. "Within the memory of men now living this depression had very steep sides so that a ladder was necessary to reach its bottom. In the center of the inclosure is another mound, circular iu shape, seventy-five feet iu diameter and twent.y feet in height. Directly in line with these two is another circular mound, one hundred feet in diameter and twelve feet high. Sur- rounding this one are a number of smaller mounds, while still within the inclosure are a large number of shallow depressions about three feet in average depth. In connection with these uiounds there «as to be seen at one time a curious formation of the banks of the bayou. Conant, from whom this description is taken, says that small tongues of the land had been carried out into the water, from fifteen to thirty feet in length and ten to fifteen in width, with open spaces between. These are quite similar, says Con- ant, to the wharves of a seaport town. It is Conant 's theory that this bayou was once the channel of the Mississippi river, which no doubt it was, that with the recession of the waters of the river, a lake was formed and that upon the shores of this lake the builders of the mounds and the inclosing wall built these miniature walls for the convenience of handling their fishing boats. Conant fui'ther describes an excavation ly- ing about one mile from the mounds here de- scribed. This excavation is in the form of an oval, one hundred and fifty feet by seventy- five feet and six feet deep. It has an em- bankment around it. On the northern side this embankment is eight feet high while at the south it is only five. On the southern side there is a narrow opening in the wall and from this opening a curved dump or fill, such as are erected by railroads, leads to the swamp. At the end of this fill and within the swamp the dirt taken from the excavation was deposited, until a circular mound or wharf was raised about twenty feet in diameter and five feet high. The same opening and elevated way extends from the northern end of the excava- tion to the water. (Switzler's "History of Missouri.") In addition to the mounds which we have described there are a large number of other striking ones to be seen in several of the coun- ties. One of these is a group of mounds south of the present site of Ste. Genevieve. They