428 ETHNOLOGY. 



* * * 4^ * ^ # 



I have the pleasure of reportiug further collections of relics — weapons, 

 mortars, tools of art, perforated stone implements of extreme hardness, 

 perfectlj' bored with a spiral auger; arrow-heads of jasper, obsidian 

 rock crystal, horustoue, and moss-agate; and, last and best, to-day I 

 have obtained from the Oconee Eiver swamp a funeral urn, like those 

 of Japan, with a close lid, 14 inches high by 12i inches middle diameter, 

 containing human relics, very discernible fingers, bones, i&c, which soon 

 moldered away after exposure to the air. The urn, which is of clay, 

 is covered all over with elaborate etchings of what I take to be written 

 characters. The lid was left in the swamp, but will probably be found, 

 and come to me sound or broken. When my collection is more increased, 

 I will send all my specimens for the Georgia department of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



In regard to the discovery of the urn which I have mentioned, allow 

 me to congratulate myself as a collector, but I beg you to inform me 

 whether my exultation is unreasonable. Am I right in thinking that 

 "funeral urns" have not before this been found in the United States'! 

 I think I have found a rich field and a new one for discoveries of this 

 kind. 



LNDIAX REMAINS FOUND 32 FEET BELOW THE SURFACE, NEAR WALLACE 

 LAKE, IN CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA.* 



By T. p. Hotciikiss, of SniiEVEi^oKT, Louisiana. 



In July, 1862, W. H. Waldrum, while engaged in digging a well on the 

 edge of Post-Oak ridge, one and a half miles from Wallace Lake, after 

 passing through the thirty-two feet of earth came upon an Indian grave. 



First. — Description of strata from surface to grave. 



1. Soil about 4 feet like i)ost-oak soil, but mixed with some sand from 

 washings of hill-side. 



2. Eed clayey earth, which, dissolving almost as freely in water as 

 sugar, and of near the same specific gravity when in suspension, ex- 

 tended down to the leafy deposit. This red deposit underlies nearly all 

 this country, extending to the very sources of the rivei', usually imme- 

 diately under the soil, and furnishes the coloring matter of Eed Eiver. 



3. Mushy, rich ground, mixed with nndecomposed leaves and 

 branches of trees. 



4. Small muscle-shells mixed with a sandy deposit for 5 or 6 feet. 

 In this deposit were found the bones and darts placed side by side, with 

 a slight laj), the points directed from the body. The largest spear was 



* Now iu the National Museum, Wasliiugton. 



