750 . PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY 



stages of advancement. These workshops, as a general rule, are located 

 on the second terrace formation along the river or the larger streams 

 that empty into the river, and in close proximity with each shop is an 

 excellent spring of water. Also in close proximity will be found a sig- 

 nal mound or station, located on the highest hill or bluff along the river. 

 Mound 12 commands an excellent view of Nos. 56, 57, and 58 ; mound 

 25 thatof No. 59; mound 27 that of shop GO; mound 41, that of G2; mound 

 79, that of 63 ; mound 21, that of 85 ; and so on, through the whole val- 

 ley. 'Tis true these signal mounds in some instances have been con- 

 verted or adopted as burial mound, probably after their abandonment 

 as signal stations. We are better able after trenching these struct- 

 ures through the center to determine their true character and probable 

 use. Until this is done our theories are premature, for only a true sec- 

 tion of their formation can establish the facts as to whether they are 

 signal mounds or burial mounds or both. In signal mounds there is only 

 one spot, and that in the center, that shows the action of fire, and when 

 it has served its purpose it is built up in a cone shape and abandoned. 

 In case it is converted into a burial mound the fire has been extin- 

 guished, the surface leveled, the dead deposited, and again another 

 layer of clay or whatever material is used iu its construction is sym- 

 metrically laid over the dead to the depth of 6 to 18 inches. Over the 

 whole surface a fire once more is started, the object being to burn the 

 clay or harden it, so that the water will not permeate it so readily as it 

 does the unburnt clay. In doing this there is no fear of destroying Uie 

 objects deposited below. Sometimes where a limb has not been suffi- 

 ciently covered it has been charred, which accounts for that part of the 

 subject we oftentimes find iu these tumuli that are mutilated and at- 

 tributed to cremation. The moisture that is contained in the body pre- 

 serves the bones of these subjects from the intrinsic action of the fire. 

 In studying the reports of the survey of mounds in certain portions of 

 the country ,by those who have classified them as signal and burial mounds, 

 the question often presents itself, by what criteria are they asserted to 

 have been signal stations or otherwise 1 The writer has followed in 

 their footsteps heretofore in his classification, description, surveys, &c. 

 In the present paper the theory of their past usage is based on the ap- 

 pearance of their strata, after a perfect section of the mound is made, 

 not from the strata shown iu sinking a shaft in the center, for, perhaps, 

 these strata may extend to "within 6 inches of the outer edge of the 

 structure or tumulus, and perhaps they may not; hence the advisability 

 of a perfect section of the works so as to enable one to classify them cor- 

 rectly. This has been done in this i)resent report as far as it was possible 

 to superintend the work. These signal and burial mounds develop the 

 fact that their builders looked to the safety of the living and to 

 the preservation of their dead, and adopted the most rational means 

 at that time, taking into consideration their surroundings and facili- 

 ties. They could not, with all their shrewdness, have hit upon a more 



