80 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



The works are situated on a slight elevation in a low bottom, which is subject to 

 overflow in rainy seasons. 



The embankment is in a good state of preservation, being, in some places, eight 

 feet in height. The ditch is on the inside of the line, and at certain intervals the 

 embankment is much thicker, or wider, as if some tower or defensive structure had 

 been erected at each of these points. Within the inclosure are eight depressions, 

 or excavations, which are thouglit to have been made during the erection of the 

 mound. Openings or pass-ways exist in those portions of the works which are 

 nearest to the spring and the river. 



I caused the mound to be cut in two by a broad deep ditch, commencing on a 

 level with the surface of the earth, and running directly through from north to 

 south. Sections were also carried east and west from the middle ditch. 



The mound was found to be composed of seven diiferent layers of soil or earth. 

 The bottom, sliglitly elevated above the surrounding surface, consisted of a layer 

 of hard baked clay. 



Upon this altar-Uhe surface rested a substratum of dark earth four feet thick. 

 The third layer, in the series proceeding from the base of the mound upwards, was 

 eight inches thick, and of a deep reddish-yellow color, resembling both in shade and 

 hardness a burned brick. The fourth layer, two inches in thickness, was black and 

 very hard, as if it had been subjected to high heat. The fifth was a light-colored 

 layer, only one-fourth of an inch in thickness, which had been subjected to such a 

 degree of heat that it was hard like pottery The three layers last mentioned were 

 about 28 feet in diameter, and were each in turn covered with a layer of charcoal. 

 The fuel appeared to have consisted, in part at least, of the common cane of the 

 surrounding low-lands. 



Fragments of pottery were scattered all through the mound, but near the middle 

 of the fifth layer a large number of thick pieces of earthenware were found, com- 

 posed of clay and river shells. Several of these pieces were surrounded with 

 charred wicker-work, or coarse matting formed of the leaves of the cane. Although 

 thoroughly charred, these fragments retained their reticulated form. It would 

 appear that the large vessel had been moulded in this peculiar kind of matting. 

 The sixth layer was composed of' the ordinary soil ; and on this rested a layer of 

 mould, constituting the seventh or outer layer. A layer of ashes encircled the 

 mound about two feet beneath the surface, and appears to have accumulated gradu- 

 ally during the use of the mound as an altar. 



A small burial and sacrificial mound lies about four hundred yards southeast 

 of the inclosure, on an elevation about sixty feet above the level of the water in 

 West Harpeth. A ravine, in which is a small stream, lies between the inclosure 

 and this small mound. This structure has the appearance of a natural rising or 

 gentle elevation, and it would scarcely be recognized on a superficial view as of 

 artificial origin, were it not for the existence of several depressions in its imme- 

 diate neighborhood, which appear to have furnished the earth for its construction. 

 It seems to have been much washed and worn by the rains; at present the diameter 

 of its base is 60 feet, and its height 5 feet. 



A circular opening ten feet in diameter was made in the summit. A short dis- 



