172 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



the soil about the bones was very uniform in color and texture. 

 Although our limited excavations in these mounds furnished no evi- 

 dence that they were artificially built up, the fact that intrusive soil 

 around the human remains could not be distinguished either compli- 

 cates the problem. More thorough excavations, coupled with an 

 examination by geologists or geographers to determine whether such 

 sharp mounds as these can be natural, will be necessary to settle the 

 question. This appears to be an unusually favorable site for such an 

 investigation. [Since the above was written I am informed by Dr. 

 E. H. Bell that these mounds and house pits have been almost entirely 

 destroyed by relic hunters.] 



HOUSE I 



The afternoon of May i6 and a considerable part of May 17 were 

 spent partially excavating a house pit at the base of another elevation 

 or "mound" some 50 yards south of "mound" i. There were 

 several large holes in this house pit, resulting from earlier relic- 

 hunting activities. By a continuous series of 3-foot trenches we 

 opened about three-fifths of the house, from 3 feet east of the center 

 to just beyond the west end. In the center the floor area of the old 

 lodge was 16 feet across and the fireplace (3 feet in diameter and 

 four or five inches thick) was in the widest portion. A trench halfway 

 across the house to the east indicated that the outline began to narrow 

 slightly in this direction. To the west, all of which was uncovered, 

 the floor area extended about 9 feet to the oval end of the house. Three 

 feet west of the widest section the floor area had narrowed to 1 1 feet 

 6 inches, and in the next 4 feet it narrowed down still further to the 

 rounded or oval end. Judging from the sections uncovered, the 

 floor plan was ovoid, being 16 feet in greatest dimension from north 

 to south and about 20 feet from east to west. The floor line seemed to 

 rise at the ends and sides rather like the sides of a bowl, although 

 time was lacking to work out this feature carefully. 



In cross-section the excavations showed approximately i foot 4 

 inches of dark unmixed soil, then a layer of yellow soil intermixed 

 with charcoal, a few artifacts and some debris which culminated at 

 an average depth of 3 feet 3 inches in a rather well-marked floor line 

 of baked clay, ash, and considerable charcoal. Just above this floor 

 line considerable amounts of baked clay with twig and reed impres- 

 sions were noted, as though the lower part of the roof had consisted 

 of wattle and daub. No mixture was noted below the floor line in 

 the central part of the house, although our examination was too 

 cursory for any certainty. However, in the west end of the house 



