6 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



are justified in the conclusion that the bodies deposited in the stone graves were 

 arrayed in dresses simihir to those in which the exsiccated bodies in the saltpetre 

 caves were inclosed. The latter were preserved from decay, undoubtedly, by the 

 saltpetre and lime salts and the drier atmosphere of the caves. 



In the numerous stone graves which I have opened, traces of the garments 

 which originally surrounded the bodies could be discerned in only one of the most 

 perfectly constructed stone cofiins. 



