ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN" IVnSiSOURI 115 



scured by fallen stone, but the others were all nicely squared. Orig- 

 inal height of the walls is conjectural, but in the northwest corner the 

 stones still stood three courses (22 inches) high. The entrance was to 

 the south and had been almost wholly wrecked; its west side was 

 only 30 inches from the west wall of the vault, and so decidedly off 

 center. Its width seems to have been about 30 inches ; the length must 

 have been very inconsiderable because of the steep declivity on which 

 the doorway opened. The mound limits, as indicated by stones still 

 in situ lay about 5 or 6 feet beyond the inner wall of the chamber, 

 thus covering a total area of some 18-20 feet across. None of the 

 stones observed showed any traces of exposure to fire, nor did the 

 much disturbed fill contain any charcoal or burnt clay. A few scraps 

 of bone, unburnt, were noted. The floor, at any rate that portion 

 examined, consisted of the loessial subsoil, smoothed but otherwise 

 without signs of special preparation for burial purposes. There were 

 no artifacts, nor do I know the nature of the material removed prior 

 to our work. 



Pearl E (fig. 12, 5) was smaller and had been utterly demolished. 

 No two stones certainly retained their original position. I do not 

 know whether this was a small vault or a slab-covered pit ; the condi- 

 tion of the mound permitted no inferences one way or the other. 

 There were no traces of fire, of artifacts and burnt clay, or of bones. 



About 300 yards south of the Pearl mounds, on a point overlooking 

 the next little valley below Pearl Branch (fig. 12, 5), a few hole 

 (shell) tempered and incised sherds and loop handles have been 

 picked up from time to time. Possibly a mound once stood here, but 

 today no satisfactory evidence of the fact remains. 



Nolan A. — This mound, one of the smaller ones of the Pearl 

 Branch group, lay just east of the Pearl-Nolan line fence on the high- 

 est point of the ridge (fig. 12, 6) . It was marked by a subcircular 

 stone-covered elevation 18 to 20 feet across by about 2 feet high. A 

 few feet west of the center was an elm tree with a trunk diameter 

 of 15 inches To the northwest was an irregular refilled area measur- 

 ing about 6 by 3 feet, which had been opened during the preceding 

 -summer (1937) by Albert Hansen. The general appearance of the 

 mound when cleared of trees, grass, and earth, and with the sur- 

 rounding topsoil removed to a distance of 3 feet beyond the limit of 

 the stones, may be judged from plate 35, a. It will be noted that no 

 stones were visible over the central area or over the short entrance 

 passage extending toward the lower right-hand corner of the 

 photograph. 



Within the chamber the gray topsoil was only about 4 inches deep, 

 as contrasted to a thickness of 10 inches or more at other unbroken 

 places on the ridge. For the most part, light yellowish gray loessial 

 soil directly underlay the topsoil. In the southeast corner bits of 



