ANOMALOUS MOUNDS 



179 



original level or floor of the mound. The holes left by their decay were found 

 filled with decomposed material ; when this was removed, they exhibited perfect 

 casts of the timbers. The casts also of the horizontal timbers were well retained 

 in the compact earth, and one of the workmen, without much difficulty, w^as 

 enabled to creep more than half the way around the enclosure which they had 

 formed. Within this chamber the earth was as firm as in any portion of the 

 mound. Upon removing a portion, a skeleton partly burned was found, and with 

 it a thin copper plate seven inches long and four broad, perforated with two small 

 holes ; also a large pipe of bold outline, carved from a dark compact porphyry 



Fig. 6 8. — Half size. 



(Fig. 68). The bones seemed to have been enveloped in a species of matting 

 which was too much decayed to be distinctly made out. The floor of the mound, 

 it should be mentioned, so far as explored, was composed of clay, was perfectly 

 level, and had been burned to considerable hardness. 



The second excavation (B) was made in the larger end of the mound, somewhat 

 to one side of the centre, at a spot marked by a depression in the surface. At the 

 depth of twenty feet was found an altar of clay of exceeding symmetry. This was 

 sunk, as shown in the section, in the general level or floor of the mound, and had 

 been surrounded by an enclosure in all respects similar to the one above described, 

 except that the timbers had been less in size. A fine carbonaceous deposit, 

 resembling burned leaves, was found within the altar. Amongst the decayed 

 materials of the surrounding enclosure were found several skewers, if we may 

 so term them, in lack of a better name, made of the bones (?//««) of the deer. 

 They were finely tapered to a point, and had evidently been originally highly 

 polished. Some were not less than nine or ten inches long. Though apparently 

 sound, they were found to be exceedingly brittle, retaining little if any of their 

 animal matter. Drifts were carried in the course shown in the section, and the 

 evidences of another enclosure discovered. The excavation was suspended at 

 this point, in consequence of heavy and continued rains. The holes soon became 

 partly filled by the caving in of the loose earth near the surface ; which discouraging 

 circumstance, joined to the extreme difficulty of digging,* prevented a resumption of 



* The difficulty of carrying on investigations in tlie large mounds cannot be readily appreciated. The 

 earth is always so compact as to require, literally, to be cat oul. It has then to be raised to the surface, — 

 a task of great labor, and only accomplished by leaving stages in the descent and throwing the earth 

 from one to the other, and finallv to the surface. Four industrious men were employed not less tlian ten 

 or twelve days in making the excavations in this mound alone. 



