288 ABORIGINAL STRUCTURES IN GEORGIA. 



urements across tbe top indicated 50 feet and 40 feet. To the east, 

 west, and south, are traces of spurs or graded ways for easy ascent. 



This mound occupies a central and commandiDg position in the mid- 

 dle of a fertile alluvial field of fifty acres. Although its contents are 

 unknown, we conceived the impression that it was designed as an eleva- 

 tion for a chieftain's lodge, since the Spanish historians mention the 

 existence of artificial tumuli erected for this purpose. Around the base, 

 and for a considerable distance on every hand, are traces of primitive 

 occupancy, all i)ersuadiug us of the fact that, in former times, this tum- 

 ulus was surrounded by the dwellings cf people who had here fixed 

 their home. 



The space adjacent to the large tumulus (A), to the extent of some 

 four acres, appears to have been largely, if not exclusively, dedicated to 

 the purposes of sepulture. Every freshet which sweeps over this area 

 uncovers human skeletons, disposed in every direction only a few ftet 

 below the surface. So thoroughly and frequently has this territory been 

 torn by freshets that it has lost its original level, and now exhibits on 

 every hand heaps of broken pottery, quantities of human bones, and 

 fragments of various articles of use, sport, and ornament. The freshet 

 of 1840 was the first, so far as we can learn, which in a marked manner 

 invaded the preciocts of this ancient burial ground. Upon the subsi- 

 dence of the waters many were attracted to the spot by the multitude 

 of terra-cotta vessels, human bones, shell-beads, pipes, discoidal ston%, 

 grooved axes, celts, and other objects of primitive manufacture. Oj^' 

 gentleman collected nearly a quart of pearls which had been perforata 

 and worn as beads. The plantation negroes supplied themselves with 

 clay pipes then unearthed. In the possession of not a few of them were 

 seen strong clay vessels, thence obtained, which they used for boiling 

 soap. Large calumets and other objects of special interest were secured 

 by the curious and carried to their homes, where, for a season, they 

 formed matter for speculation and idle talk, and in the end were either 

 lost or broken. Subsequent inundations have brought to light similar 

 proofs of sepulture and early manufacture, but this treasure-house has 

 been so often visited and so carefully searched that its present yield 

 falls far short of that which was encountered when the Harrison freshet 

 invaded this place of the dead. 



It is a sad fact that the denudation of the banks of these southern 

 streams and the destruction of extensive forests in reducing wild lands 

 to a state of cultivation have proved tbe proximate causes of serious in- 

 jury to, and often of the total demolition of, many prominent and inter- 

 esting aboriginal structures. 



On the right bank of the Oconee Eiver, about a mile and a half above 

 its confluence with the Appalachee Eiver, situated in the low grounds 

 of the plantation of Mr. Thomas P. Saffold, is a circular earth mound 

 some 20 feet high, covering about the eighth of an acre. Tbe sides are 

 sloping, as in the case of other conical mounds along the line of this 



