reluctantly postponed. The largest mound of the group, No. 1, is 20 feet high, and unexplored, as are the remainder of the group not mentioned. In mound No. 8, about 7 or 8 feet below the surface we found two skeletons, apparently an intrusive burial. With one were some arrowpoints and a piece of plumbago nearly an inch square. With the other skeleton was an earthen vessel broken and crushed.

There are many mounds on the bluff adjacent to the group in the bottom. They are composed of earth and flat stones, and from one of them were obtained several perfect skulls, two of them very interesting on account of their peculiar shape, one broad and flat, the other narrow and long. From this mound was also obtained a fine piece of pottery in good preservation and perfect, excepting a small piece broken from the rim by the spade. It is different from any hitherto found. The vessel is of a dark, nearly black color, and seems to have been burned. It contained the inevitable spoon of shell from the adjacent stream. Near the vessel were secured flint implements, such as arrow-points, scrapers, bunts, knives, &c. The skull was broken in many pieces and beyond recovery. The flint and shell-spoon on one side have a siliceous, stony crust. This incrustation is also on the inside of the earthen vessel. From the fields in this vicinity were obtained a number of stone implements.

ABORIGINAL REMAINS NEAR NAPLES, ILL.

By JOHN G. HENDERSON, of Winchester, Ill.

A number of years ago Dr. Clark Roberts, of Winchester, Ill., had in his possession some singular pipes, which upon examination proved to be relics of the mound-builders. This, however, is a rather unfortunate title, as the history of nearly all savage races shows them to have been mound-builders. The same locality, by disease, famine, emigration, or war, may have been depopulated and again repeopled by other races, each of which in its turn may have erected mounds for religious pur poses, as sites for temples or dwellings, points of observation or monuments over dead heroes. The word mound-builder, therefore, is calcu lated to lead to error by the implication that the habit of mound-building was peculiar to one prehistoric race, and that all the mounds of the great valley of the Mississippi are relics of one lost and forgotten people. In this paper the term mound-builder is applied to no particular race or nation, but to those who in ancient times occupied the Mississippi Valley, and there erected earthworks of any kind.

As the bulk of all that is known of the ancient inhabitants of this valley, especially of their curious and beautiful pipe-sculpture, was ob tained by Squier and Davis from the mounds of Ohio, the importance of the discovery of similar articles on the banks of the Illinois River, the ancient Houkiki of the Algonkins, was fully appreciated by the writer,

and Dr. Roberts kindly placed them at his disposal, giving all the information he could relative to them. The relics were obtained from a mound at Naples, Ill., where several years ago the writer resided and heard of the finding of these relics, especially the turtle-pipe. Dr. Roberts's courtesy determined at once a visit to the place in order to examine carefully the character of the mound, and to find anything

that had been overlooked or thrown aside by the parties who first explored it. Accordingly, in February, 1876, in company with Mr. Merrill, the author visited the spot with the necessary implements for making a thorough examination. On a sand ridge, about one mile southeast of Naples and about three-quarters of a mile from the river,

are five mounds, represented in the accompanying map, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The river bed is near the center of the space between the bluffs or highlands, which are at this place 7 or 8 miles apart.

The following figure shows the relative position of the bluffs, river bottom, river bed, and sand-ridge on which the mounds are located:

3

5

FIG. 2. Section of bluffs, &c., on Illinois River.

Nos. 2 2 represent the bluffs capped with loess; 3, the river bed, and 5 the sand ridge. This ridge is between a fourth of a mile and half a mile in width, about 30 feet higher than the level lands on either side, and runs a little east of north, parallel with the river. The mounds are nearly parallel with the ridge. The one farthest to the north, No. 1 (Fig. 1), is a regular oval, 132 feet long, 98 feet wide, and about 10 feet high. It was, no doubt, originally much higher, as it has been plowed over for years, and the top is composed of sand. Mound No. 2 is the one from which the pipes and other relics referred to were taken. This one, and Nos. 3 and 4, are covered with a small growth of hickory and oak trees. No. 2 is 86 feet in diameter and about 11 feet bigh. No. 3 is 90 feet in diameter and 11 feet 4 inches high. No. 4 is 66 feet in diameter and about 4 feet 8 inches high. No. 5 is 50 feet in diameter and 3 feet 6 inches high. Mound No. 3 is composed of very hard ash-colored clay. No. 2, from which the pipes were taken, is shown in the following outline cut (Fig. 3), which represents its present condition:

a

FIG. 3. Section of mound near Naples, Ill.

The inclosed space marked 4 represents the excavation made by former explorers. In the present exploration the diameter of the mound, 86 feet, was first obtained and then its height, using for this latter purpose a spirit-level and pole, as represented in the cut, placing the level on the margin of the excavation at a. Its height proving to be about 11 feet and the depth of the old excavation about 7 feet, 4 feet remained in order to reach the original surface. The removal of a large amount of forest leaves that had accumulated in the hole revealed for the first foot or more, soil that had tumbled down from the walls of the excavation. Next was encountered a stratum about 18 inches in thickness, composed of clay, black soil, and sand, in separate

patches, indicated by 2 in the above cut. Below this was a layer of black soil, in which were found human bones, the head of one femur, the head and about 6 inches of the upper end of the other, one of the vertebræ, both clavicles, ribs, and other bones, but all very much decayed. Pieces of the skull were found, but so much decayed that only the outline was indicated on the earth. The size of the femur and other bones refuted the current tradition in the neighborhood that the original excavators found bones of giants in this mound. No ashes, charcoal, or any other indication of fire appeared. There was no altar. It seemed to have been simply a burial mound, the body having been placed on the ground and covered with a layer of black soil.

The first explorers found three pipes and two copper axes, of which two pipes and one copper ax were secured. The thorough excavation before mentioned prevented the determination of the exact position of the bones. The occurrence of the bones of only one individual led to the conclusion that the mound was erected as a memorial over the remains of a single chieftain or hero.

The relics discovered in mound No. 2 are probably as fine specimens of carving as have ever been found anywhere belonging to that ancient people, and they are in no way injured by the action of fire. Three pipes and two copper axes were found in the mound at a depth of about 15 feet. The following cut represents one of the pipes, intended to resemble the raccoon (Procyon lotor).

This raccoon pipe is made of very hard stone, and is polished as smooth as glass, and every feature of the animal is perfect. The bars on the tail,, the claws, the position of the fore and hind feet are all correct; even the markings of the face are properly indicated by lines cut in the stone. But above all, the artist has caught the very expression of the animal which he was imitating.

Such artistic skill in the manipulation of the hardest and most intractable material into beautiful and graceful forms could only be obtained by long study and patient toil.

H. Mis. 26--44

One of the most remarkable things about this specimen remains to be described, for it is not shown in the cut. The native workman, for some reason, began drilling the hole for the stem at the rear end of the curved base, so that the nose of the animal would be from the smoker, but, by accident, the under side of the material chipped out. Too much labor had been expended on the specimen to throw it away. He therefore made a neat plug of the same material, stopped up the hole with it, and then drilled a hole, as is almost invariably the case, in the front end, so the animal would face the smoker. The right front corner of the curved base is broken off, the fracture beginning at the stem hole, and, it may be, that this other hole was an attempt to repair the pipe after it was broken, and that, when the artist chipped out the lower side of the hole, he gave up the work and plugged up the partially drilled hole. Whatever may have been his object this neatly fitted plug is another proof of the skill of the workman.

The other pipe taken from the same mound is no less perfect. It represents the common hard-shell turtle of the American rivers, as shown in Fig. 5.

The cut shows but faintly the beauty of this specimen-the nostrils, the head partially drawn back, the consequent fold of skin in the rear of the skull, the paddle-like feet, the claws, the tail folded around and against the body on the underside of the rear of the shell-all are perfect. In one of the eye-holes is a copper bead representing the eye ball, the other one being lost.

Professor Baird pronounces this turtle pipe to be made of catlinite. There has been some question whether any articles made of this substance have been found in any locality of undoubted antiquity; the shape, however, is precisely that of the other mound pipes. There is no question as to the antiquity of the specimen, however.

Judged from the figure on p. 423, of "Flint Chips" of a turtle pipe, found in the mounds of Ohio, by Squier and Davis, the Naples specimen is far superior to that one in fidelity to nature. The copper ax, Fig. 10