PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



699 



'Near the center of the mound a single skeleton was found in a sitting 

 position, and no objects were about it except a single sea-shell resting in 

 the earth just over the head, and a number of the bone awls already de- 

 scribed sticking in the sand around the skeleton. The individual had 

 been seated upon the sand, these awls stuck around him in a circle, 4 or 

 5 inches in the sand, and the work of carrying dirt began. When the 

 mound had been elevated about 6 inches above the head, the shell was 

 laid on and the work continued. Although the many perfect bone imple- 

 ments found in this mound fully repaid the expense and labor of ex- 

 ploration, some disappointment was felt, since, from the size and beauty 

 of outline of the mound, we exjiected some fine discoveries in tlie way 

 of pipes, copper axes, &c. This mound was raised to about the height 

 of 6 feet with hard clay, and then finished with sand. The skeleton was 

 about 10 feet below the surface. The shell, a fine specimen of Fyrula 

 perversa with the inner whorls removed, so as to be used for a drink- 

 ing cup, is rei^resented in the following figure : 



Fig. 20. Pyrula drinking-cup, from mound near Naples, HI. 



Mound No. G, upon the river bank, is the finest in the vicinity. It 

 is a truncated cone, about 13G feet in diameter at the base, 15 feet high, 

 and 30 feet across the top. It is perfectly symmetrical, and from the 

 success in the mounds upon the high ground great hopes were enter- 

 tained of this, though the anticipations were not realized, yet what 

 was found and the information we obtained fully paid the expense of 

 opening the mound. The character of the earth was the same as that 

 found in mound No. 3, but still much harder. More than once the 

 workmen had to take their steel picks to the blacksmith shop and have 

 them dressed. It was impossible to use the spade or shovel until the 

 original surface was struck. These mounds were intended as enduring 

 monuments to the dead, and for that reason were not built of the Sur- 

 face loam, or sand, which would soon be destroyed by washing, but of 

 claj', and no doubt a part of the workmen engaged in their erection 

 were employed in carrying water and pouring it on the mound as the 

 work progressed. This, with the constant tramping, would account for 

 the hardness of the material. At a depth of 7 or 8 feet, bits of rude pot- 



