OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 43
vation of a similar mound, on the banks of Walnut Bayou, Madison Parish, Louisiana, and is introduced incidentally, to show the connection between the monuments of the lower Mississippi and Mexico, and those of the Ohio valley. None of these, so far as examined, contain remains. They were obviously designed as the sites of temples or of struc- tures which have passed away, or as “high places” for the performance of certain ceremonies. Perhaps they deserve to occupy a place by themselves, in the classification here attempted.
Anomalous Mounds.—It will be impossible, within the compass of this paper, to enter into the details which a proper notice of these mounds would require. Such a notice would necessarily involve a description of almost every one thus characterized. A single mound was exa- mined which contained an altar, and also a skeleton with its rude enclosure of wood. It was elliptical in shape, mea- suring one hundred and sixty feet in length, sixty in width and twenty-five in height. The altar occupied one centre of the ellipse, the chamber of the skeleton the other. Of the twenty-six mounds embraced in “ Mound City,” siz are of very small dimensions, not exceeding three feet in height. Within each of these was deposited a quantity of burned human bones in fragments, not exceeding in any case the amount of a single skeleton. No relics were found with these, though in one instance a fragment of an altar, a couple of inches square, was observed with the bones, leading to the conclusion that they were taken up from the altars, in the adjacent larger mounds, and afterwards finally deposited here.
General Observations.—Whether these classes are maintained throughout the West, is a question which a systematic examination, carried on over a wide field, alone can determine. In almost every case falling within our knowledge, where mounds have been thoroughly examined by competent persons, some of the features here marked
