him in those discourses. But a more decided, not to say dramatic, appreciation of the tremendous damage done the Democratic party and the Slavocracy by the Illinois lawyer was the summary deposition at the opening of Congress of Stephen A. Douglas from the chairmanship of the Senate committee on Territories, a position he had held for eleven years and which he had made famous or infamous in their service in connection with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. All these things were noted in Iowa as elsewhere and the people no less than the politicians were becoming aware that Illinois had a dominating man-dominant because he possessed not only a profound, far-seeing mind, but wonderful powers of compelling speech. King makers could ask for no more favorable conditions than those which confronted the friends and admirers of Abraham Lincoln at the close of 1858.

DO WE NEED A RAILROAD?-This question is asked by a correspondent of The Citizen. Every man, woman and child. in Central Iowa will promptly answer yes. We not only need a railroad, but should have one as soon as possible. It is true that the late commercial revulsion has operated disastrously upon railroads, but still there are means at our command and advantages possessed, which if properly and promptly applied would in a short time have thousands of laborers at work in building a railroad through Central Iowa. This will not be done, however, until the people move in the matter. Action, talk and agitation is needed. Let us have another excitement-let the subject of Railroads be agitated in every county, city and town-let meetings be held, the people aroused and their attention called to the vital importance of a Railroad.-Tri-Weekly Iowa State Journal, March 1, 1858.

Stone-work disclosed in Boone mound, from a point fifteen feet above. The fourteen-foot rod lies due north

and south, the target to the north.

EDITORIAL

DEPARTMENT

When he [Mr. Aldrich] closed his desk, for the last * some editorials and much material undeveloped or in outline. * * * It will be the purpose of the writer, who has been appointed Acting Curator * * to continue the form of the journal identical with that preceding the death of Mr. Aldrich, and make use of such material *. If any deviation shall be made it will be in the number closing the volume [which may] include all * * * communications * incident to Mr. Aldrich's death.

time, there were within it manuscripts

EDGAR R. HARLAN."

(Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. 8, P. 385.)

BOONE MOUND EXPLORATION.

For a score of years large mound near the Des Moines river, almost directly west of Boone, Boone county, Iowa, had attracted many interested in Iowa archaeology. It was first called to the attention of the late Charles Aldrich by Mr. Carl Fritz Henning of Boone. Mr. Aldrich, upon careful examination, approved the opinion that it was of prehistoric origin. He had done some considerable mound exploring during the latter years of his activities in Hamilton and Boone counties and from the size and locality of the one in question determined it was worthy the attention of public authorities. Consequently he referred the matter to the Board of Trustees of the Historical Department of Iowa. He was authorized to secure permission to explore, and to thoroughly explore it.

During the spring of 1907 Mr. T. Van Hyning, in charge of the Department Museum, submitted to Mr. Aldrich plans which the latter approved for the work. Arrangements were made to proceed under Mr. Aldrich's personal oversight, when notice was served on all concerned that in the mound was the unmarked grave of Oliver Perry Coffer, who was there interred about 1850. The advancing crop season, the failing health of Mr. Aldrich, and these objections, combined to defer the work for a year. In April, 1908, the Department secured per

mission and transferred the remains of Mr. Coffer to the Mineral Ridge cemetery in Boone county and began the work of exploration.

The mound was oval in form, 90 by 110 feet in extreme dimensions, and 14 feet high. Mr. Karl Kastberg, city engineer of Boone, made a careful survey of the mound and locality, and prepared working plans. It was laid off in horizontal sections five feet square, and perpendicular sections one by five feet. The dirt was removed by beginning at the northerly side and shoveling a row of sections out upon the surface. The dirt of the second row of sections was in the same manner shoveled out into the space from which the first was thrown, and so on throughout the work.

From a datum point maintained throughout the work, each object disclosed was located on the plans. After the work was done the so-called "stone work" was topographically surveyed as the mound had been before it was disturbed.

Before the settlement of the country there were heavy forests of elm, hard maple and oak throughout the region of the mound. At the time of its exploration there were two oak trees and one elm standing near the top, each of twenty-four inches diameter. Three feet of the surface of the mound was soft, sandy loam. Five feet was very compact but of the same character otherwise as the first three. Its hardness was such as to suggest its having been baked together. Beneath the compact stratum the dirt was soft to the foundation of the mound. There were found on every level and practically in equal distribution throughout the mound pottery fragments, but no complete vessel or other such object. These fragments, 4,000 in number, seem to be tempered with disintegrated granite. They indicate burning on their convex sides. They show ornamentations in more than thirty patterns. At least one fragment of the rim of a vessel shows finger prints evidently made in the plastic state and preserved through the burning. Many, if from circular vessels, show the diameters of these to have been over three feet. Clam-shells in thin sheets, small heaps and singly occurred generally throughout, and especially numerous near the bottom. These are of species extant in the