ioo Hopewell Mound Group 



up or driven in ; then being covered by the mound in the course of time 

 they rotted away, leaving the holes. The earth had not caved in 

 around them. A few traces of decayed wood were to be observed. 

 These post-holes were from 4 to 6 and 8 inches in diameter and from 

 2 to 3 feet deep. They were in groups of five or six, and apparently 

 two rows of them. It was difficult to determine their position with 

 exactness. The appearance of these post-holes indicated or suggested 

 that logs or posts of wood had been driven in to make a surrounding 

 vault or protection for the body, and for the funeral objects which 

 were deposited with it. Following the trench as it was cut down, it 

 was remarked that this particular mound showed that which was 

 remarked of other mounds by Squier and Davis, and others, that at 

 two or three feet from the surface, apparently extending all around the 

 conical form of the mound, there had been a layer of white sand or fine 

 gravel from one to three inches thick, and then the mound had been 

 heaped over this to a depth of three or four feet. In the centre at the 

 top of the mound, this white sand or gravel was about 2 feet below the 

 surface, but at the edges it was as much as 5 feet below the surface, 

 due probably to the ploughing and erosion. This streak of gravel was 

 regular and continuous, and could only have been made by spreading 

 the gravel over the mound, after it was thus far completed. The layer 

 of earth which was on top of the sand or gravel, the stratum which was 

 2 and 5 feet> as mentioned, must have been put on at some subsequent 

 time, but how long subsequent, no one can possibly tell. For the most 

 part, this strip of sand or gravel showed the mound to have been a 

 complete or perfect cone, but in some places on the sides and around 

 the edges there were depressions and changes from the regularity of the 

 cone. Other mound investigators have remarked this layer of sand or 

 gravel. Squier and Davis mention various instances. Like many other 

 peculiarities of the mounds, they are alike in general features and yet 

 differ much, in details. The layers of sand and gravel differ naturally 

 with the various localities from which they come. They differ in num- 

 ber, for sometimes there may be only one such layer, and other times 

 three or four. Sometimes they extend in a regular and continuous 

 layer over the mound, and at others they are broken and irregular. 

 Sometimes they are of sand, other times of gravel, and again are of 

 small boulders, etc." 



Students unacquainted with the exploration of large mounds would 

 naturally suppose that in numbering a series of skeletons or deposits we 

 would begin at one end of the base line and number the skeletons in 

 order of their position. This was done wherever practicable, but it is 



