EXPLOEATIONS IN TENNESSEE. 383 



low round dish I send yoii, and the soapstone pipe. The piece was 

 broken out of the side after it was found. Of Eobius's people I also got 

 the jar, and the smaller jug, or whatever it may be called, I then went 

 to the Johnson's; they had had two larger vessels than these, but let 

 the children use them for playthings, and they broke them up. Jerry 

 then showed me to the place on the river where these things had been 

 found ; the water is now twenty-five to thirty feet below the level of the 

 bottom, and it was covered, judging by the marks, along the higher 

 land, six to twelve feet deep. Along this bottom, for one-half to three- 

 fourths of a mile, and for one hundred to three hundred feet from the 

 bank, every yard of the soil has fragments of pottery, burned sand- 

 stones, and shells, and flint fragments, but I did not find a single arrow- 

 head here. At the lower end of this bottom the water washed out the soil 

 three to five feet deep in spots, covering from one-half to one acre. In these 

 pits were found these vessels. I could see along the banks of these pits that 

 the remains reached to a depth of only twelve to sixteen inches. The 

 soil did not appear to have been washed off only where these pits were 

 excavated ; nor was there any appearance of mounds, and I was told 

 that there never had been any on this bottom. Last year the field was in 

 corn; this year, wheat. Many of the specimens of earthen- ware appear 

 freshly broken, as if done in plowing. I saw many very small frag- 

 ments of bone, and I believe that there is now a large quantity of these 

 earthen vessels buried in the ground, for these I have, must have been 

 buried, and for a, x^urpose. The owners would certainly have thrown 

 away only the broken ones. I had no time to dig, and only stopped my 

 surface search at dark. Wednesday I traveled up the west bank of the 

 river to Alfred Taylor's. Here the water had washed the soil off of 

 some three to five acres, and there were great quantities of burned 

 sandstones, fragments of flint, &c. Very few fragments of earthen- 

 ware were to be seen here. Here Mr. Taylor said that the flood of 18G2, 

 which was much greater than that of 1867, washed out many articles, 

 bones, »S:c. ; one, a stone jar, some person carried away, as well as many 

 other things ; but I could not hear of any of them being in the neigh- 

 borhood at the present time. You will see by the large fragments of 

 soapstone that they likely made vessels of that article. I hear of other 

 places, one Watson's Island, where there were many articles washed out 

 by the flood, and there are a great number of mounds along the Ten- 

 nessee and its branches ; and if there are any questions in regard to the 

 mound-builders yet unsolved, I think this country the place to solve 

 them in. Did they bury their dead in the bottom or on the top of the 

 momids ; or did they bury them in or near their villages ; and did they 

 bury one of the jars or pots with them ; or was something hidden in the 

 buried vessels ? I think that nothing but careful digging will solve 

 these questions. 



