414 ABORIGINAL RUINS IN TENNESSEE. 



more tborouglily I found fragments of fi human skull, but no other 

 bones. These lay near the edge of their opening; hence I conchide that 

 they must have taken the skeleton out. I also found, lower down, three 

 fragments of stone implements. The composition of the mound was 

 surface soil, as usual. 



Mound Q : Twenty yards across at base, and nine feet high. At 

 eighteen inches down we came upon a bed of coals and burned earth, 

 evidently where a large fire had been. At three feet, in v.hat appeared 

 to be a dei>osit of ashes, we foiuid a copper relic; at four feet, lying 

 alone in the yellow earth, a stone implement; at four and a half feet, 

 what seems to be a copper plate attachetl to a fragment of matting; at 

 six feet, a second stone implement like the first; at eight feet, lying 

 immediately' together, three pieces of lead ore; and at nine feet, on the 

 solid earth, a small string of copper beads. 



There were no bones or other things in this mound indicating that it 

 had been used as a burial-place. All the articles found, except the cop- 

 per wheel, lay immediately' in the yellow earth, and there were no dis- 

 colorations in the adjoining soil, which must have been the case had 

 perishable articles been buried with them. 



I thiidi you will find the beads are held together by the same imper- 

 ishable material to be seen in the copper relics found in G. 



SHELL BEDS. 



There are two extensive shell beds in connection with these ruins, 

 one on each side of the river. That on the eastern side has been under 

 cultivation for years, and lying immediately upon the surface it is not 

 in so good a condition as it would otherwise have been. It covers abont 

 half an acre of ground, and is some eighteen inches in thickness. I 

 explored it pretty thorooghly before this season's crop Vvas put in, and 

 in the collection marked "E" you will find the result, together with 

 some of the shells composing the mass. 



The bed on the west side of the river was entirely undisturbed until 

 I examined it. It covers a little less than half an acre, is al>out two 

 feet in thickness, and lies three feet below the surface ; that is, the 

 overflows of the river have made a sedimentary deposit upon the shell 

 bed three feet thick. Taking into consideration that this river seldom 

 overflows oftener than once in a year, and sometimes but once in several 

 years, that its waters are not then as muddy as most other rivers at 

 such times, and that being a mountain stream it soon subsides, we can 

 form at least some idea of the age of this shell bed. In addition to 

 this, I may say there is now growing upon it a burr-oak tree, {Quercm 

 macrocarpa^ Michx.,) fully six feet in diameter. 



I explored this bed carefully, and you will find an assortment of what 

 I obtained in the collection marked ''S," together with specimens of the 



