S A C R I F 1 C I A L M O U N D S . 151 



the slopes of the altar, were found the traces of a number of pieces of timber, four 

 or five feet long, and six or eight inches thick. They had been somewhat burned, 

 and the carbonized surface had preserved their casts in the hard earth, although 

 the wood had entirely decayed. They had been heaped over while glowing, for 

 the earth around them was slightly baked. In fact the entire hollow of the altar 

 was covered with a thin layer of fine carbonaceous matter, much like that formed 

 by the burning of leaves or straw. These pieces had been of nearly uniform 

 length ; and this circumstance, joined to the position in which they occurred in 

 respect to each other and to the altar, would almost justify the inference that 

 they had supported some funeral or sacrificial pile. 



The remains found in this mound were, in their number and variety, commensu- 

 rate with the labor and care bestowed on its construction. A quantity of pottery 

 and many implements of copper and stone were deposited on the altar, intermixed 

 with much coal and ashes. They had all been subjected to a strong heat, which 

 had broken up most of those which could be thus affected by its action. A large 

 number of spear-heads, as they have been termed, beautifully chipped out of quartz 

 and manganese garnet, had been placed here ; but, out of a bushel or two of 

 fragments, four specimens only were recovered entire. One of them is faithfully 

 figured under the head of " Implements." A quantity of the raw material, from 

 which they were manufactured, was also found, consisting of large fragments of 

 quartz and of crystals of garnet. Some of these crystals had been of large size, 

 certainly not less than three or four inches in diameter. A single arrow-point of 

 obsidian was found ; also a number of fine arrow-heads of limpid quartz. One of 

 these was four inches in length, and all were finely wrought. Judging from the 

 quantity of fragments, some fifty or a hundred of these were originally deposited 

 on the altar. Among the fragments were some large thin pieces of the same 

 material, shaped like the blade of a knife. Two copper gravers or chisels, one 

 measuring six, the other eight inches in length, (see " Implements") also twenty 

 or more tubes formed of thin strips of copper, an inch and a quarter long by three 

 eighths of an inch diameter, (see " Ornaments,'''') were found among the remains. A 

 large quantity of pottery, much broken up, enough perhaps to have formed origi- 

 nally a dozen vessels of moderate size, was also discovered. Two vases have been 

 very nearly restored. They resemble, in material and form, those already men- 

 tioned, and have similar markings on their exterior. (See " Pottery") Also a couple 

 of carved pipes ; one of which, of beautiful model and fine finish, is cut out of a 

 stone closely resembling, if indeed not identical with, the Potomac marble, of which 

 the columns of the hall of the House of Representatives at Washington are made. 

 The other is a bold figure of a bird, resembling the toucan, cut in white limestone. 



A portion of the contents of this mound were cemented together by a tufa-like 

 substance of a gray color, resembling the scoria? of a furnace, and of great hardness. 

 It was at first supposed to be carbonate of lime gradually deposited, in the lapse 

 of time, from the water percolating through the outer stratum of limestone gravel 

 and pebbles. The quantity however, covering as it did a large part of the basin to 

 the depth of an inch or two, weighed strongly against such a conclusion ; and a 

 subsequent analysis demonstrated that it was made up in part of phnsphates. A 



