The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

WALNUT GROVE MOUND

The Work of Demolition Goes on with a Great Deal of Care,

INTERESTING RELICS ARE FOUND Every Day During the Progress of the Work-An Elk's Antlers Among the Articles Taken from the Mound.

An Antique Pipe to Which the Odor of Tobacco Still Clings.

The number of persons who visited the mound at Walnut Grove, at Martin's Ferry, yesterday, is variously estimated at from 1,500 to 3,000. No work was done yesterday. Many men and boys spent a part of the afternoon looking for relics.

C. C. Cochran found an elk's antlers in the big mound on Saturday, measuring fully seven feet in length and five and a half inches in diameter at the base. The work of removing them was very tedious and it was absolutely impossible to get them out intact. They were broken in many pieces and are in a remarkably good state of preservation for the time they have been in the tumulus. The finding of these caused a great deal of talk; everybody was anxious to see them, and several persons wanted to buy them. The finding of the photograph of the high mogul of the mound-builders would not have created more surprise than these antlers. The elk is very rare in Europe and is no longer found in parts of North America where they were once common. In olden times they extended as far south as the Ohio river. They are sometimes seen on the shores of the Arctic ocean. When full grown an elk sometimes weighs 1,200 pounds. The body is round and short. The head which is narrow, is about two feet long. A single antler has been known to weigh sixty pounds. The hair breaks when bent. Its common gait is a shambling trot. The color of the elk is brownish black, darker in winter than summer. When compelled to eat grass they must go down on their knees to reach it. Their proper food consists of the branches and foliage of shrubs and trees. They are very timid and inoffensive, except during the rutting season. The flesh is a good kind of venison and the nose and tongue are reckoned delicacies.

It seems that the people in ancient times smoked pipes, and possibly cigarettes, judging from the appearance and odor of one relic found in the big mound. About one third of the way down from the summit was found a red pipe and it was a strong one. The statement that it was strong may be doubted, but the INTELLIGENCER man smelled it, and discovered the fact that it was actually odoriferous, and so much so that the smelling feature was discovered when the pipe was handed to him, and when a foot from his nose. The attention of the finder was called to this fact, and on smelling it himself he said:

"Sure enough! Well, that beats anything I ever heard of."

The finder supposed it was a pipe just after he picked it up, and on examining it closely saw tobacco in the old time smoking article, or something that had been smoked. The pipe, which was broken in two, measured 23 inches in length and two thirds of an inch in diameter in the inner circle, and a little over an inch on the outside. The pipe is round and has a round hole in the bottom of it, the hole measuring fully a fourth of an inch. The ancient pipe was made out of stone or clay and burned very hard. It is turned at the bottom and the whole of the interior is as smooth as glass.

Contractor Cochran will put a large force of men at work to-day in removing the mound. With the increased force and favorable weather he expects to finish the job by the middle of April. Less than one-fourth of the mound was hauled away in the five and a half days worked last week. Mr. Cochran has been exceedingly careful in the work, so that the relics would not be destroyed and pass into the carts unnoticed. There is nothing in the removal for Cochran except the money he will get from Martin's Ferry for dirt, which is being used for filling North Fifth street, preparatory to paving it with fire brick; the big mound is not being removed for the sake of science; all the relics are to go to Mr. O. R. Wood, the owner of the ground.