MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 637 



into this mound and recovered some valuable pottery. One large basin 

 was made in imitation of a duck with wings and bill exposed. 



Kesuming the exidoration, the surface was dug over for a space of 

 30 feet in diameter and a feet deep. Within that area not less than one 

 thousand skeletons were exhumed and at least two wagon loads of pot- 

 sherds. This pottery commenced about a foot from the surface and ex- 

 tended down to the first stratum of bones. 



Mound No. 4 was only 4 feet bigh and 15 feet in base diameter. Upon 

 examination it was found to contain no relics. 





Fig. 4. — Mound No. 5 — looking north (1, 2, 3 = shafts: 4, 4, 4 = charcoal and ashes.) 



Mound No. 5 was 10 feet high and 32 feet in base diameter, and very 

 symmetrically shaped. It was situated on a hummock about 50 yards 

 from the margin of the arm of Payne's Prairie. This was formerly a 

 lake, but about twenty years ago the water disappeared through the 

 sink. It remained dry for about three years, when it filled with water 

 and has remained a lake ever since. This mound was examined (see 

 Fig. 4) and a stratum of ashes, charcoal, and charred bones encountered 

 3 feet from the surface. 



Mound No. 6 was about 8 feet high and 80 feet in base diameter. It 

 stood in a cleared field which had been plowed over for a number of 

 years. Nothing was discovered within it, although a ditch was cut 

 through from one side to the other. 



SHELL DEPOSITS AT THE MOUTH OF SHOET CREEK, WEST 



yiEGINIA. 



By H. B. Hubbard, of Wheeling, W. Va. 



Short Creek is a little stream that enters the Ohio River 9 miles above 

 the city of Wheeling, and the shell deposit alluded to commences to 

 show in the bank of the river some 50 yards above the mouth of this 

 creek, and is exposed for over 100 feet up the river, when it is hidden 

 by a fill for a road down to the water. The shells are those of the fresh- 

 water clam and are very fragile, splitting into fine scales on handling, 

 though an occasional one is found that is perfect. The shells are now 

 covered with about 3 feet of silt, and formerly there were 3 or 4 feet of 

 the same loamy deposit over this, but it was removed in grading for a 

 I)ublic road. A portion of this road, witli much of the deposit of shells, 

 has fallen into the river by the caving iu of the bank. 



