Note 29 — Chapter I

In a paper, A Deposit of Agricultural Flint Implements Found in Southern Illinois, Smithsonian Report, 1868, Dr. Chas. Rau treats the subject of Aboriginal Agriculture at considerable length. In the Smithsonian Report for 1873, p. 413 et seq., Dr. A. Patton describes the exploration of several remarkable mounds in Lawrence Co., Illinois. In the Smithsonian Report for 1874, p. 351, Taylor McWhorter describes a number of mounds in Mercer Co., Illinois. He estimates the number in the county at one thousand, mostly on the Mississippi River bank. The Antiquities of Whiteside County, Ill., by W. H. Pratt, of Davenport, Iowa, printed in the same Report, p. 354 et seq., is a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the mounds. The first mound examined yielded eight skulls, two of which were preserved. The third mound opened yielded the skeletons of four adults and several articles of interest, such as pieces of mica, a lump of galena and a dove-colored arrow-head. From the fifth mound opened, a remarkably well-preserved skeleton was recovered. Dr. Farquharson, of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, has contributed one of the most valuable tables of mound-cranial measurements ever published.