ANCIENT MOUNDS IN UNION COUNTY, KKN'I'UCKY. 



401 



Di 



iau-ramNo e'""""* ll!W\#^" f >"'"'"" 



"^JmjlJ 



'%^m. 



22, 23, and 24 were partially examined. They did not prove to be com- 

 inoD binial-places, and were abandoned foiUhe present. These mounds 

 are formed of sand, different from that found in the hills near by and 

 that used for the covering of bodies in the common burial-idaces. The 

 material used appears to have been taken from the drifts of fine sand 

 washed by the Ohio River in to the overflowed land. 



The operations were then carried on in mounds 37, 38, and 40. I was 

 attracted to mound 37 by stones standino- near the center of it. This 

 is the only mound examined by me in which stones were used to form 

 any portion. No. 37 is an oblong or pear-shaped mound, the largest 

 part being G5 feet diameter ; the neck, 42 feet long. The greatest length 

 107 feet 5 greatest v/idth, (35 feet. The scale of Diagram No. 5 is too 

 small to exhibit the form or arrangement of the group to which 37 be- 

 longs. It will be better seen on Diagram No. G. 



Mound No. 37 (Diagram 

 No. G) was opened on the 

 northwest side, at a point 

 which appeared to be the 

 margin of the artificial part 

 of the hill. The discolora- 

 tion from the leaves and de- 

 composed vegetable matter 

 penetrated the earth about 

 three feet deep. At the depth 

 of tvro feet bodies were en- 

 countered. The earth was 

 well thrown back and an open- 

 ing 14 feet long and 5 feet 

 deep was made, giving a face on the side of the ditch toward the mound 

 14 feet long by 5 feet deep. The bottom of the ditch appeared to be the 

 subsoil of the country, a stiff clay. By digging into this clay it was 

 found to be very stiff, and full of a wlutish mold not unlike that found 

 within the skulls, and at the bottom of some of the burial urns or pots. 

 During the progress of the work this clay was found to cover all the cir- 

 cular part of the mound removed. (See Diagram No. C, mound 37.) In 

 contact with the clay 5i feet deep the bones were very tender. When 

 near the center of the mound I had an opening made into the supposed 

 subsoil, and found it to be a coat of stiff" moldy clay covering bodies 

 buried one above another to the depth of 12^ feet. At the base of the 

 clay, G feet deep, was found an irregular pavement of limestone, evidently 

 obtained from an outcrop of the "Carthage limestone" occurring half 

 a mile to the north. The same limestone forms the bed of the Ohio River 

 between the Kentucky shore and the head of Wabash Island, one mile 

 distant. 



The margin of the mound at G feet below the summit and on a line 

 with the pavement was composed principally of small pieces of the same 

 2GS 



'1*11./. 



l^y Ma 37 



