One of the richest mounds in relics and human remains is known as “the Great Mound of the River Rouge,” situated on the stream from which it takes its name, near the Detroit River and about four and a half miles from the centre of the city of Detroit. The mound now measures twenty feet in height, and must originally have measured 300 feet in length by 200 in width, though the removal of large quantities of sand from it has greatly reduced its proportions and destroyed many valuable relics. Many other mounds surrounding it have also been removed. The most remarkable result of the exploration was the discovery of tibiæ flattened to an extreme degree, such as is peculiar to platycnemic man. A circular mound in the vicinity yielded even more remarkable specimens of this singular flattening or compression. Two specimens presented unprecedented proportions; the transverse diameter of one shaft being 0.42 and the other 0.40 of the antero-posterior diameter. The circular mound yielded eleven skeletons besides a large number of burial vases and stone implements of all descriptions peculiar to the mounds. Of the crania from this mound we shall speak in Chapter IV. In 1872, Mr. Gillman examined a remarkable group of tumuli situated at the head of St. Clair River. These mostly stand on the shores of Lake Huron. The relics, besides human remains, consisted of pieces of mica, and necklaces of beads of the teeth of the moose alternating with well-wrought beads of copper. The same peculiarity of flattened _tibiæ_ was markedly prominent in the remains.[13] The same investigator has examined mounds at Ottawa Point, Michigan, near the mouth of the Oqueoc River, at Point La Barbe in the Straits of Mackinac, and at Beaver Harbor on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. Excepting ancient copper mines, no known works extend as far north as Lake Superior anywhere in the central region. Farther to the North-west, however, the works of the same people are comparatively numerous. Dr. Foster quotes a British Columbia newspaper, without giving either name or date, as authority for the discovery of a large number of mounds, seemingly the works of the same people who built farther east and south.[14] On the Butte Prairies of Oregon Wilkes and his exploring expedition discovered thousands of similar mounds.[15] [Illustration: Great Serpent, Adams Co., O.]