Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — Remarkable Mummies. [ARTICLE]

Remarkable Mummies.

J. \V. Morrow, a medical student, avlio returned to Kansas Gitv, Mo., recently from a Western pleasure trip, brought Avitli him tAVo specimens of natural mummification. He discovered them on Long Island, in the Columbia River, in Oregon. which had once been an Indian burying ground. In life one of the mummies was an old man, probably sixty years of age. He avus buried in a sitting posture, the knees druAvn up to his chin, the left arm thrust under the left leg and joined Avitli the right in an attitude of supplication. The mummy is perfect, Avith the exception of a spot on the back, Avhere contact Avitli the earth caused decay. Unlike the mummies of Egypt, in these the outlines of the body urc not preserved. The viscera is gone, and they look liko nothing so much ns human frames covered Avith ruAvhide. In the old man all the organs and members are perfect, however, even to the tongue, lips and eornou. Grayish black hair covers tho bead in spots. Not a tooth is missing, though they are all very much worn, as in old age. The moccasins on the feet are in ns good state of preservation as is the body. The other mummy is perfect except the head. It is that of a child about seven years old. When found it lay at full length iu the box, its feet encased in buckskin moccasinsuud bits of ribbon, Avell preserved, tied about its legs. A blanket covered the other. In some trespects the smaller mummy is the better specimen. 'The finger nails are perfect, as in life. Mr. Morrow cannot account for the phenomenon. Settlers in the vicinity declare that the burying ground. Avhich Avas that of the Columbia River tribe .had not been used for -forty years. The mummies are, therefore, at least tAvo-score years old, and may be a century. The soil of the island is sandy, and the atmosphere hot and dry. This might account for the condition of the bodies, were it not for the fact that mounds on all sides of tho one in Avhich they Avere found contained nothing but bones.— [N«av York Telegram.