With the assistance of Messrs. Wegmann and Sauer, whom we engaged for the occasion, several of this interesting group of mounds were excavated, with the following results:

EXCAVATIONS.

Mound No. 1 was composed of sandy loam. The remains of one or two interments in this mound were fragmentary and useless for scientific comparison.

Mound No. 2 was not excavated.

Mound No. 3. Composed principally of black sandy loam. At the west side of the center the loam of the original surface had been removed. Resting upon the natural gravel below this excavated loam was a quantity of calcined human bones. Five skulls were recognizable and the fragments of probably as many more were intermixed in this heap of charred remnants. At the north edge of the calcined remains was a well-preserved skull. Just above this calcined mass of human remains and almost resting upon it were six skulls and various bones, more or less decomposed and broken. Still above these last described remains and near the upper surface of the mound appeared the remains of an intrusive burial of doubtful identity; but since a well-defined covering of birch bark appeared, this latter interment was undoubtedly by Sioux or Ojibway Indians, probably the latter. The remains of this last interment were very much blackened and decomposed, while on the other hand the skulls lower down in this place of burial were natural in color; a comparison in the mode of burial which presents a wide difference. At the east end of the excavation there had been buried the remains of seven persons, but throughout the extent of the excavation there was wanting any evidence of regularity in the mode of burial. In different sections of the mound two small beds of gravelly sand and two of charcoal and ashes were noticed, but no certainly defined existence of fire at the time of burial could be traced. A portion of the bones were calcined.

Mound No. 4 was composed of black sandy loam, and contained the disappearing remains of but one person near the bottom of the mound.

Mound No. 5. Composed of a light sandy loam. Near the east end a small pit, five feet in diameter, had been excavated

below the original surface about one and one-half feet. From this artificial pit there were taken three skulls and a few bones, very much decayed and broken. At the east end appeared a quantity of debris, consisting in part of broken bones, pottery shards, charcoal and ashes, but the bones were not of human origin.

Mound No. 6 was composed of sandy loam, and contained, apparently, the fragments of two decayed skeletons.

Mound No. 7. Composed of sandy loam. Only one pottery shard was found in this mound.

Mound No. 8. Composed of sand and sandy loam. Two small ash heaps and a few fragments of human remains only were found in this outlying place of burial.

Mound No. 9. Composed of sandy loam. Near the surface were two intrusive burials, male and female, and the same considerations apply to these which appear concerning the upper burials in Mound No. 3. I am of the opinion, however, that these are the remains of Ojibway Indians, buried near the surface, in the flesh, and not, therefore, prepared for a continuous preservation as were the calcined remains of the dead Mound-Builders, interred so long ago in the mound referred to. The other remains in this mound had long since crumbled to dust.

Mound No. 10. Composed in part of a sandy clay and sandy loam. Near the center of this mound were two skulls and parts of three skeletons. Beyond a trench, about twentyeight feet in length, run through the upper part of this place of burial, nothing of interest appeared. The interments were original.

Commencing at the site of the central portion of the Lewis group, and extending to the Mississippi river on the west and to Itasca lake on the south, there appeared numerous stone spalls and pottery shards, indicating beyond doubt a more defined outline of the village site maintained there during the centuries long since passed.

At Point Hill, Itasca lake, named by Dr. Coues in honor of my late distinguished associate, there was discovered one mound twenty-four feet in diameter and two feet in height, which contained fragments of bone and mussel shell. At the summit of the south end of Point Hill, a remarkable bone heap was excavated, about twenty feet above the surface of