278 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. 



It is said that the saline properties of the spring were more notice- 

 able before the deep bore was made which produced the sulphur w^ter, 

 which is so much patronized. The well is now 300 feet deep. 



My main object in presenting these facts is to call attention to the 

 distorted condition of the crania. In my opinion many otherwise acute 

 observers have been misled in their classification of skulls by the ap- 

 pearance of those distorted by pressure. 



My experience has led me to believe that many skulls considered ab- 

 normal, or as belonging to a race type, are simply distorted by the 

 pressure of the superincumbent earth. To illustrate: If a corpse has 

 been buried in a sandy or otherwise loose earth, with the eyes turned 

 upward, as the soft parts decay, the skull is filled by the earth pene- 

 trating or silting down through the sockets so as to present a resistance 

 to pressure, and we may expect to find a skull in the normal condition. 

 If, on the other hand, the earth is hard and not of a quality to penetrate 

 and fill the skull, or if the skull be turned to one side so as to prevent 

 it being filled except by a slow process, we may expect to find the skull 

 distorted, bent as it were, and, so far as my experience goes, the rule is 

 invariable. If the head lay on its side we should have a dolichocephalic, 

 and if upon its back a brachycephalic skull, without any breaking of 

 the bone. If turned to either side, we should have a distorted skull, 

 which belongs to neither class, but might be unwittingly classed as a 

 " type," or as an abnormal development. 



ABORIGINAL STRUCTURES IX GEORGIA. 



By Charles C. Jones, Jr. 



I. 



BIRD-SHAPED STONE TUMULI IN PUTNAM COUNTY, GEORGIA. 



The existence of curious effigy-mounds in the southern counties of 

 Wisconsin was noted by Mr. Lapham in 183G. Subsequently, Mr. Tay- 

 lor, Professor Locke, and Messrs. Squier and Davis furnished additional 

 information in regard to the distinctive characteristics of these unusual 

 structures. It was reserved, however, for the Smithsonian Institution, 

 in the seventh volume of its " Contributions," to furnish, from the pen 

 of Mr. Lapham, the most complete account of these interesting remains. 

 They were quite numerous along the great Indian trail or war-path 

 from Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, to the Mississippi above the 

 Prairie du Chien. Generally representing men, buffaloes, elks, bears, 

 otters, wolves, raccoons, birds, serpents, lizards, turtles, and frogs, in 

 Bome instances they were supposed to typify inanimate objects, such as 

 bows and arrows, crosses, and tobacco-pipes. While the outlines of not 



