1895.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 507 



partly to compression of the earth by the weight of the structure, and 

 partly to the increase and looseness, from cultivation, of soil in the field. 



The mound presented no peculiarity of construction; its. erection 

 had been practically continuous, at least to the height at which 

 this excavation began, for there was neither line of demarcation in 

 the small masses of dumped earth composing it, nor any trace of 

 vegetable growth such as would take place if the work were inter- 

 rupted. Several sorts of earth entered into its composition, mostly 

 like that immediately around, though it contained some that is not to 

 be found, superficially, nearer than 300 or 400 yards away ; such 

 may, however, occur closer at hand beneath the surface. A small 

 part of it was gathered where leaves or grass had recently been 

 burned off. 



The bones mentioned by the owner were found at the depth he 

 indicated; and other fragments were found below them as far as to 

 the bottom of the mound, scattered through earth that plainly had 

 been disturbed since first deposited. The men who did the scraping, 

 however, insist they did not go so deep, neither was any digging done 

 in the trench they made; if this be true, these lower bones must have 

 been thrown promiscuously, mingled with earth, into a hole dug by 

 the builders of the mound when it had reached a height of three or 

 four feet. 



Nineteen feet north of assumed center the skeleton of a young 

 child was found eighteen inches above the original surface. An 

 excavation measuring six feet east and west, by four feet north and 

 south, had been made when the mound, or this portion of it was less 

 than three feet high, and lined with a thin layer of bark or wood 

 which extended beyond it on every side ; the bottom was quite 

 irregular except in the north-west corner where a space had been 

 leveled barely large enough to afford a resting place for the body, 

 which lay extended on the back with head to the east. With the 

 bones of the neck were 65 copper beads; these had been strung on 

 vegetable fiber, along with small disk shell beads, the latter too soft 

 for recovery. On the right wrist were two small copper bracelets. 



Nothing else was found above the natural surface. Below the top 



soil is black loam a foot deep, resting on a stratum of hard, gravelly 



red earth two feet thick, below which is the gray sand whose bottom 



has never been found. This definite arrangement made it easy to 



ascertain the aims and methods of the builders. 



