One opened by the writers of the article is described by them as follows:
On the south side of it the bed stone had been formed into a shallow trough. On removing the flat stones which covered this, and which showed no action of fire, we found a bed of charcoal several inches thick, both animal and vegetable, and the limestone which composed it was burned completely through. Some fragments of a human femur were found in a calcined state. There were no indications of fire elsewhere in the mound, but there were the partial remains of several skeletons, lying in two layers, with stone and earth between them.
In another, examined by them, fragments of human bones were found so near the surface as to be reached by the plow; but deeper, on the north sides, were single skeletons laid at length east and west, and between them a mass of bones confused as though thrown in indiscriminately. The diameter of this mound was about 30 feet, height 2½ feet.
In section 24, township 55, range 7, is a small hill, known as "Wilson's Knob." Its crest, which is about 120 feet long, is completely covered with stone to the depth of several feet, the pile being about 20 feet wide. Examination brought to light the fact that this was originally a row of stone mounds or burial vaults, nine in number, circular in form, each from eight to nine feet in diameter (inner measure), and contiguous to one another. Judging from appearances it would seem that each had been of a conical or dome-like form. They were composed wholly of stone, and the remains found in them were almost wholly decomposed.
On another ridge the same parties found another row with four stone mounds similar to those described, except that the cists were square instead of circular, the sides of the latter being equal to the diameter of the former. In these only small fragments of bone could be found.
Although Messrs. Hardy and Scheetz evidently considered these stone structures as receptacles for the dead, and as erected for this purpose, yet it is possible they may have been intended for some other use.
The mounds of Pike County are chiefly of mixed material similar to those mentioned,[24] though some of them contain rectangular stone vaults. One of these vaults, measuring 4 by 5 feet, was found to contain the remains of eight skeletons. Another, a regular box-shaped cist of stone slabs, contained nothing save a few cranial bones very much decayed. Another of large size contained human remains with which were some arrow-heads, a vessel of clay, and a carved steatite pipe, having upon its front a figure-head.
I have given these particulars in order to show how closely they agree with the discoveries made by the Bureau assistant in this region, from whose notes I take the following description:
Between Fox River and Sugar Creek, in Clarke County, a sharp dividing ridge about 100 feet high extends in a northerly direction for nearly two miles from where these streams enter upon the open bottom of the Mississippi. Scattered irregularly along the crest of this ridge is a line of circular mounds shown in [Fig. 18]. These range in size from 15 to 50 feet in diameter and from 2 to 6 feet high, and are circular in form. In No. 3,[25] diameter 35 feet and height 5 feet, situated in the central portion, was found a stone coffin or cist 7 feet long and 2 feet wide, formed of slabs of sandstone in the usual manner. This was covered first with similar slabs and then the whole incased in a layer of rougher stones. Over this was a layer of hard earth, which was evidently in a plastic state when placed there, as it had run into and filled up the interstices. Above this was a foot or more of yellowish earth, similar to that forming the ridge. In the coffin was the skeleton of an adult, lying horizontally on the back, but too far gone to decay to admit of removal. No specimens of art of any kind were found with it.