410 ABORIGINAL EUINS IN TENNESSEE. 



of the surfiice, lu the excavation, fragments of pottery utensils were 

 found. jSTotliing- further was discovered. These mounds, unlike the 

 preceding, were composed of the tough clay and gravel of the ridge 

 upon which they stood. A depression near at hand showed where the 

 material had been obtained. 



Mound G : Forty-five yards in diameter at base, and twelve feethigh. 

 Two large white-oak {Quercus alba) trees were upon it. In one, which 

 had been cut down, two hundred and fifteen riugs were counted, mak- 

 ing it two hundred and fifteen years old. We dug a large circulnr 

 excavation in the center on the top. The earth at the surface gave 

 indications of having been intensely heated. At two feet down we 

 came upon a human skeleton lying on its back, with the hands at the 

 sides, and the head toward the east ; the bones badly decayed. At 

 three and a half feet we found another skeleton, lying i)recisely the 

 same as the first, and immediately nnder it. At five feet we came 

 to loose stones lying upon one another, and rounded up mound- 

 shaped, which v;e removed, to the amount of several tons, when the 

 solid earth was reached, and a skeleton was found lying exactly as the 

 others, but further east, the feet of this one being immediately under 

 the heads of the other two. The stones seemed to have been thrown 

 directly upon the body; consequently most of tbe bones were more or 

 less broken. The skull was crushed entirely flat. At the left side of 

 the head were found three copper relics, lying just as I have tied them 

 together. The string still to be seen in one of them is made, 1 think, 

 from the bark of papaw, {Aslmina triloba^ Dunal,) a circumstance worthy 

 of note, as it proves that material to be almost imijerishable. Modern 

 Indians used it extensively for strings and ropes, and I can recollect 

 when our southern and western people did the same. It was prepared 

 by peeling the bark from the trees wdien the sap was up, and sinking it 

 under water, to remain several weeks, to " rot," as it was called. When 

 taken out the inner separated from the outer bark, and split up into 

 very thin sheets. It was these sheets that were used, and after having 

 gone through this process they were much stronger than the entire bark 

 was before. I send you a slip of " rotted papaw bark." Immediately 

 upon the breast of the third skeleton w^as found the fragments of a shell 

 ornament. ISTothing further was discovered in " G,'* though we made 

 careful and extensive search. The composition of the mound, aside 

 from the stones already mentioned, was light surface soil, which seemed 

 to have been scraped up from the high lands. 



Mound H : A large mound, ten feet high. It is under cultivation, 

 and therefore cannot be opened before autumn. 



Mound I : Has a house upon it, and therefore no examination could 

 be made. 



Mound J : Is the largest mound in the group. It is over one hundred 

 yards in diameter at the base, thirty feet high, and perfectly level on 

 the top. We rigged a windlass, and sunk an eight-foot shaft in the 



