e is made bowl and stem
together, and it is curious that people of such crude ideas of tools
and weapons should manufacture such a perfect specimen of a pipe. It
is composed of a very heavy stone, the nature of which would be
difficult to determine, as it is considerably burned.

A description of the vault will be found interesting to many. The wall
of the vault rests upon the natural surface of the ground, about three
feet high and eight and a half feet square, the inside corners being
slightly rounded; it is built in layers about four inches in thickness
and varying in length upward to three feet, neither cement nor mortar
being used in the joints; the corners formed a sort of recess as they
were drawn inward to the top, in which many of the stones were found.
The stone for constructing the vault was brought from a distance of
about a quarter of a mile, as there is none in sight nearer.

I assume from all these circumstances that these people lived in this
neighborhood anterior to the age of flint tools, as the more recent
interments indicate that they were then entering upon the flint
industry, and it may be that the "cotton rock" had become obsolete.

These people buried their dead on the highest ground, covering and
protecting them with these great mounds, when it would seem much
easier to bury as at the present day; but instead, they, with great
labor, carried the rock from a great distance, and it is reasonable to
suppose, also, that the earth was brought from a distance with which
they are surrounded, and piled high above, as there is no trace of an
immediate or local excavation.

In my view from the mounds and their surroundings I would
unhesitatingly say the water, the foot hills of the glacier and the
swamps left in its wake were but a short distance to the north of
them, and during the summer months the melting ice would send a volume
of water down this valley that the Missouri River of to-day is but a
miniature of, and therefore the highest hills were the only land that
could be used by that ancient race.

In this connection I would make the following suggestions that may
lead to more important disclosures: My object is the hope of a more
thorough investigation at some future time. Nearer to the top of the
mound was found, certainly, the remains of a people of more recent
date than those found in the vault, as their bones were larger, which
would indicate a more stalwart tribe, and also their mode of b