Human remains are almost invariably met with, only one exception being noted. The boues are generally very much decayed, though each bone is found almost entire, except those of the head. This seems to have always rested on a stone, and to have been covered by one or more, so that it is always found in a crushed condition. In stature the skeletons indicate a variation from 5 to 6 feet. No jaw-bone or even a fragment of one has been found from which the teeth were missing, and of the scores of teeth recovered there has been but one decayed, a wisdom tooth still in place. The teeth invariably indicate mature or advanced age. The human remains found in mounds constructed wholly of stone are generally much more decayed than those in mounds of mixed material. In rare instances stone implements, pipes, &c., are taken from the excavations, but these are more frequently picked up on the surface at no great distauce from the remains.
So far as known, no accounts have been published concerning these mounds, nor have any systematic examinations been made.
As the stones used in their construction were of a kind useful to the early settlers in walling up their wells, laying foundations, building chimneys, &c., nearly all such material has been removed, so that it is rare to find a mound that has not been disturbed to some extent. Since all the bottom lands are now in cultivation, those in such locations have been plowed down for many years. But where they are tolerably large and built principally of stone, as is generally the case, they are still well defined. Those that are situated on timber lands have the same growth of trees upon them as in the surrounding forests, if they are composed wholly of earth. In some cases white-oaks 2 feet in diameter or more are found on the very summit as well as on the slopes.
In the southeast quarter section 6, township 55, range 5, owned by Mr. J. Brashear, on the right bank of Salt River, is a row of mounds on the top of the bluff, which rises precipitously and then slopes back to the interior. There are twelve of them, the three southern ones being in a cultivated field, the others in the native woods. They vary in distance from 20 to 70 yards and in size from 20 to 50 feet in diameter, and in height from 2 to 5 or 6 feet. Except the south one they are of mixed material. That was wholly of stone, which was mainly removed by Mr. Brashear some forty years ago, when he commenced his improvements. He found in it a single human skeleton of large size. The fourth from the south was examined by us a few weeks ago by digging a ditch about 3 feet wide through its center. It is 58 feet in base diameter, and at the center 5£ feet above the general surface, having several white oaks growing upon it as large as any in the woods. The base was of flat limestone, thrown together without order; above this a layer of earth, another of stone, and so on to the top* No relics were found except a small fragment of pottery, a portion of a globular-shaped vessel, the inside of which was coated with a
