The Reverend Dr. Brunson, of Prairie du Chien, whose able contributions to the State Historical collections, and other learned treatise mark his efforts as most thorough in research, reliable in statement, and clear in delineation writes under the date of June 26, as follows: "In your history, Chapter 9, you speak of an ancient mound. This reminds me of one I saw in 1842, between the Falls and Mr. Warren's, where Chippewa City now stands, and as it has a bit of history I will give it:" "The mound, as near as I can recollect, was a mile or so south of Mr. Warren's. It was round, or nearly so, some thirty or forty feet in diameter, and four or five feet high. In the center was a hole resembling a rifle pit. It was this that attracted my attention, and led to inquiry. There were a number of smaller ones in the vicinity, but I only examined this one." "Michael Cadotte, a brother of Mrs. Warren, told me that he was born in the neighborhood, his father being a trader, and his post some five miles below Warren's on the river. He was then fifty-two years old, which would take his birth back to 1790. His father told him in after years, that during his residence there, two years, the Sauks and Foxes came there from below, to make war on the Chippewas, the Sauks from Sauk Prairie, on the Wisconsin River, and the Foxes from Prairie du Chien - and had their fight on the site of this mound, and the neighboring timber and brush. He said the pit in the large mound, and the pits in the smaller mounds, and some in the open prairie were dug by the Sauks and Foxes, from which they fought until being repulsed they retreated, and never returned to fight the Chippewas again." These mounds referred to by the Reverend Doctor, I have frequently examined exteriorly, but am not aware that any excavations have been made into or about them. It may be that the traditional statements of Mr. Cadotte have some foundations in truth, but I was inclined to thing that these pits and mounds, and all the earthworks, and tumuli found in the State, belong to a period more remote. And in support of my views will quote from the same learned author, from the Wisconsin Historical Collection Volume 4, page 225 "Early Wisconsin History." "The earliest inhabitants of the district now included within this State, of whom we have any knowledge were the ancestors of the present Indians of this vicinities, and from the best light I have been able to obtain the subject form Indians traditions, and from the earliest history of the country, the Dakota, or Sioux, were occupants and owners of the soil, of what is now our entire State, together with Minnesota, and the northern part of Illinois and Iowa." "This occupancy can be traced back for about two hundred and fifty years, and if the growth of the trees on the mounds, indicate at least four hundred years to the time of the mound builders, be a true index, it is very strange that the Sioux have no traditions of them, as there would have been but one hundred and fifty years between them. This makes it probable that the time of the mound builders is further back in the world's history that is generally supposed." If the date referred to by Cadotte were the period in which these mounds were constructed, we should certainly find in and about them articles of European manufacture, but in scarcely any hog them have any such articles been found. Carver always refers to them as the works of an extinct race, who, most likely, cultivated the soil and lived in towns and villages. Having made frequent mention of this traveler and author, as premising that many perhaps most of my readers, in this valley are not familiar with his narrations and the claim set up by his heirs to the ownership of the soil, on which we live, I trust I shall be excused for a more extended notice of him. The maps of the United States have for nearly half a century (until within a short time past) had in the delineation of this quarter of the country always upon them certain lines, embracing a large district of territory denominated "Carver's Tract." WHO HE WAS Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut, born in 1732, entered the British Army as an ensign, and rose to the rank of captain, a brave soldier, a man of integrity and high moral worth, and possessing energy and enterprise. He left Montreal early in the spring of 1767, attended by a small retinue of French and half-breed voyageurs and soon found himself at Green Bay, where was a settlement of French traders, and a mission, went up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, spent some time at Prairie du Chien, also a French Trading post, and wintered at Wabasha, and other points on Lake Pepin. It is proper to state that a share of expense of this expedition was borne by himself, and he published the result of his observation in London on his return in which he gives an account of the continual wars going on between the Naudowisses as he calls the Sioux and the Chippewas. States that he was very successful in negotiating a peace between the principle chiefs of the former, paid great deference to him and insisted on his returning to them to establish a trade with them. But not one word does he say of the grant of land which his heirs and legal representatives set up a claim to, as having been obtained from two of those chiefs, a deed, or rather a copy of a deed for which over their signature was produced, the original as was claimed being in Carver's own hand writing in which it was set forth on account of their good brother Jonathan's judicious conduct in acting as mediator between these two nations, and of their friendship and attachment for him. We the chiefs of the Naudowisses do grant to the said Jonathan, &etc., the whole certain tract or territory of land bounded as follows: "Beginning at St. Anthony Falls, running along the east bank of the Mississippi River, to where the Chippewa joins the same, thence eastward five days travel, thence north six days travel and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct straight line." A map of the country as drawn by Captain Carver accompanied this deed, the signature to which was for one chief a mud turtle, the other a snake or lizard, and is dated at the great cave council room, on the first of May 1767. The names of no witnesses are appended. Captain Carver died in 1780, and the only special interest to us which attaches to his narrative or the aforesaid deed grows out of the claims and pretensions set up by one Reverend Doctor Peters, and a physician named Lettson his legal heirs, who in 1806, went before Congress and made affidavit that this grant he been recognized by King George III, 1775, that a commission was granted, and means provided to enable Carver with 150 men to return to America and take possession of his domain and take possession of his domain, all of which was suddenly frustrated by the news of the Battle of Lexington, and praying Congress by virtue of the British King's approval to renew the grant to them, Carver's legal heirs. These claims were backed up by pertinacious arguments, and positive affidavits, but Congress could not see it, and the whole pretentious claim fell to the ground. Had their title been verified, certain Englishmen would have gotten possession of this whole valley, without advancing money on bond or mortgage to build a railroad through it, as certain other Englishmen have done by virtue of a certain other grant of land, made not by the Chiefs of the Naudowisses, but by their great father, Uncle Sam.

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