a and b, is 8g inches long, 3g wide at the cutting edge, 2 inches wide at the top, and nine-sixteenths of an inch thick. It is made of pure copper. On one side the salts of the copper have preserved the cloth that lay against it.* The warp and woof, Fig 10 c, are distinctly marked. On the other side of the ax are preserved, in the same manner, feathers over the whole surface. This feather cloth was extensively manufactured by the Red Indians of two hundred years ago, but is now, like the manufacture of pottery, to most tribes a lost art.

For the manufacture of textile fabrics the aborigines used the inner bark of the mulberry tree (Morus rubra), cedar (Juniperus Virginiana), cypress (Taxodium distichum), red elm (slippery elm) (Ulmus fulva), the bass-wood (Tilia Americana), the papaw (Asimina triloba), and the outer bark of the Southern cane (Arundinaria macrosperma). The Southern Indians used the silk plant (Apocynum canabinum), while the California Indians manufactured their textile fabrics of Agave Americana. The natives of North America also wove the hair of the buffalo, the wolf, the dog, the brown lynx, and Virginia opossum (Didelphys Virginianus).

It is difficult to determine whether the threads on this ax are of bark or wool, though they seem to be the latter. In the Mitchell mound, in Madison County, Illinois, specimens of cloth were found of both materials, while the size of the mound, copper implements, and contents generally, indicated that it was of great antiquity. In no one of the instances, except in the Mitchell mound, is there any trace of feather cloth. The reverse side of this copper ax is covered with the imprint of feathers. The body, no doubt, was wrapped in a bark mantle, one side of which was covered with feathers in the style in which the Indians of the Mississippi Valley manufactured feather cloth.

Out of hundreds of references on the subject the following are selected as probably throwing some light on the manner in which the tenant of this mound was clothed for his final rest.

Jones' Southern Indians, pp. 84, 85; Hayward's Tennessee, vol. 11, p. 163; Archæologia Americana, vol. 1, p. 303; Bradford's Amer. Antiquities, p. 30.

Other mound pipes have been found in the vicinity of Naples, and among the number that shown in Fig. 6.

Of this pipe Dr. Charles Rau says: "It is certainly the finest mound pipe thus far known. I have handled a hundred times the mound pipes of the Squier and Davis collection (now in the Blackmore Museum, Salisbury, England), but none of them equaled the specimen in question. Not having been exposed to the action of fire like the Ohio pipes, it has suffered no damage whatever, and is as perfect as on the day

· See Jones' Southern Indians, p. 225; S. S. Lyon, Smithson. Rep., 1870, p. 399; Foster, Prehistoric Races, p. 223.

Upon this point consult Flint Chips, p. 420; Lapham's Antiquities of Wisconsin, p. 47.

when it was made." Certainly a relic so highly spoken of by such competent authority justifies all the information relative to it which could be obtained.

On the right bank of the Illinois River, about 300 yards below Griggsville Landing, rises a lofty bluff fully 300 feet above the level of the river. On the summit is a beautiful, oval mound, 150 feet long, 92 feet wide in the middle, and 25 or 30 feet high. The following outline, Fig. 7, will give an idea of its appearance.

FIG. 7. Large oval mound, near Naples, Ill.

Daniel Burns, John W. Windsor, and others, about forty years ago, were engaged in digging a grave on this mound, when the spade turned out a stone bowl about 6 inches in diameter across the top and about 4 inches deep. Deposited in the bowl was found the eagle pipe, another bird pipe, a frog pipe, and a copper gouge about 6 inches in length. This locality has afforded many valuable relics of prehistoric man, and it is a matter of regret that they did not fall into the hands of persons who knew or appreciated their scientific value.

Just south of the large mound above described, on the next point, are five circular mounds about 30 feet in diameter and 10 or 12 feet high. Indeed, within a radius of 5 miles from Naples there are at least fifty mounds, very few of which have ever been opened.

After the foregoing description of these mounds and the articles found in them was written, the Smithsonian Institution, in December, 1879, began a through exploration of them. On the 10th of December, Mr. Merrill and

the writer, with six laborers began work on mound No. 3 of the plat. In 1876, we had started a trench on the northeast side of the mound, about 2 feet wide, intending to carry it to the center, but the hardness of the material and want of time compelled us to desist. A part of our men were put to work in this trench, and the others began to sink a shaft about 8 feet square in the center of the mound. The earth was so hard that it was impossible to use a spade or shovel except for throwing it out after loosening with the pick. When within about 18 inches of the original surface a whitish substance was encountered resembling ashes. This substance was in a layer several inches thick, about 2 feet wide, and 10 or 12 feet in length north and south. The workmen in the center of the excavation reached the red sand of the original surface and then began carefully to enlarge the hole to the size of our shaft. Shortly, upon the west side, the pick struck the elbow of a skeleton. The arm, slightly bent, was resting in a natural position by the side. Carefully removing the earth the whole length of the skeleton, we found that the bones were those of an aged man about 5 feet 8 inches in height. The body had been placed at full length on a small elevation of sand, the head a little to the west of south,

+h+g

FIG. 8. Diagram of mound No. 3, near Naples, Ill.

a, male skeleton. b, female. c, two large, dark, chert nodules. d, circular plate with hand engraved on it. e, piece of galena. f, circular plate of mica. g, arrow-points and knives. h, copper ax. i, skeleton of woman (!). j, skeletons.

The bones were

both arms in a natural position, resting by his side. greatly decayed. The skull had been mashed flat and broken into a great many pieces by the weight of the earth above, so that several were lost. The porous ends of the leg bones were completely decayed so that they crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. The processes for

the attachment of ligaments indicate a man of great strength, while the tibias do not show any of the unusual flattening described by Mr. Henry Gillman, but are of the usual form, and the lower part of the humerus was not perforated in the manner described by the same author. The skull, from its great thickness, was capable of being restored by gluing the edges of the fragments together. This skull is represented in Fig. 24, a side view, b back; the top, in a, Fig. 26. Near this skeleton was another, lying in the same position as the first. The two bodies were placed side by side, and the latter, judging from the delicacy of the bones and teeth and the thinness of the skull, was that of a woman. In the preceding cut (Fig. 8) a and b represent the position of these skeletons. From the appearance of the teeth the woman was in the prime of life. Both of the bodies were buried in the mound with the flesh upon the bones, as every bone was found in its proper position. Near the feet of the male skeleton, at the point marked c in the cut, were found two large nodules of dark chert resembling the true flint of Europe. One of these was but slightly chipped, while the other had been split in two near the middle, and but one half deposited in the mound. This half nodule was lying face downward, and resting upon it and the ground was a remarkable specimen, which may be designated a "sun-symbol." It is a white stone, perfectly round, 12 inches in diameter, about one-half inch thick

FIG. 9. "Sun-symbol," from mound near Naples, Ill.

in the middle, and 1 inch upon the edges, slightly concave upon one side, and having upon the other a figure of a human hand. An idea of its appearance will be obtained from Fig. 9.

The outlines of the hand are cut into the stone between an eighth and

a sixteenth of an inch in depth, and then the inclosed space was cut down, or rubbed down, to about half the depth of the outlines. In this manner the hand was shown very distinctly. The edge at the thumb was resting on the ground, and at the little finger on the top of the chert nodule; thus the hand faced the east, the fingers pointing toward the south. The mass of superincumbent earth had broken this disk into several pieces, as there was when buried nothing under the middle to support it. To the left of this specimen and the nodules of chert were found a piece of galena weighing about 7 pounds, and a circular piece of mica about 14 or 15 inches in diameter and about onehalf inch thick.

Still further to the left, at the points marked g and h in the cut, were found two copper axes (Fig. 10, ab, d-e), one weighing 7 pounds and measuring 10 inches in length and 4,5, in width at the cutting edge. Fig. 10, c, shows the texture of matting found around the copper axes.

FIG. 10. Copper axes and matting, from mound near Naples, Ill.

With this ax were found four very fine arrow-heads (Fig. 12); two knives (Fig. 11 and Fig. 13, b); a finely worked spear-head (Fig. 13, a); and a very fine chipped ceremonial ornament (Fig. 14, a). The latter consists of a dark piece of chert, with two wings upon each side. The base and point are a modified form of the arrow-point.

There was also found a regular mound pipe made of a soft, white stone, very much decayed (Fig. 14 b.) The articles that were buried with these two persons are all represented in Figs. 11, 12, 13, and 14. A little southeast of the heads of these skeletons, at a distance of about 8 or 10 feet, at the point marked i, in Fig. 8, was found another skeleton in a sitting posture. Judging from the character of the bones and