MOUNDS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND EARTHWORKS. 55 



The small hill, from the foot of which this spring issues, is covered by a burial 

 mound containing numerous stone graves. 



In other mounds which 1 have examined, by sinking large trenches and wells 

 through the centre, layers of ashes and fragments of bones, many of wliich were 

 charred and apparently both human and animal in their origin, were found mingled 

 with ashes upon hard baked surfaces. Such mounds appeared to have been used 

 solely for the incineration of the dead and for religious purposes. 



At Sycamore, twcntj-two miles from Nashville, down the Cumberland River, in 

 Cheatham County, I examined a large number of stone graves, and also several 

 small mounds, which were not more than ten feet in diameter, and three feet 

 high. These consisted of an exterior layer of sand and earth, next a convex layer 

 of flat rocks, and beneath this, ashes, charcoal, and human bones. It appeared that 

 the bodies had. been burned upon the surface of the earth and covered over with 

 flat rocks, and the whole covered with earth. 



In the neighborhood of the stone fort, near Manchester, I observed several 

 piles of rock about eight feet in diameter, and from one to two feet in height. 

 When these were removed they were found to have rested on ashes and charred 

 bones. 



