126 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



those in Pearl C and Nolan B and C, consisted of large leaning slabs 

 that had been mostly obscured by the covering of small rocks. Diam- 

 eter of the original mound, as measured between the base of the large 

 slabs on opposite sides, was about 16 feet. 



Though there was no evidence, when excavations began, that the 

 tomb had been previously molested, the lack of clearly marked soil 

 zones, together with an all but complete absence of human bones, 

 soon gave rise to a suspicion that we were not the first to enter it. 

 A poorly preserved mandible was found 5 inches above the floor at 

 a point 12 inches from the northwest and 6 inches from the north- 

 east wall. Close to the southeast side, on the floor, was a broken femur. 

 A careful examination of the floor, following discovery of the partly 

 demolished wall near the west corner, soon disclosed the fact that 

 the entire chamber had been cleared previously. In the north half, 

 the old diggings went down at least 27 inches below the original floor 

 of the enclosure on which rested the lower course of stones; else- 

 where the burial surface had been reached and evidently searched 

 thoroughly for "relics." The present owner insisted that the mound 

 had never been opened, and from its general appearance and the 

 relatively compact settled nature of the fill I should judge that the 

 looting probably took place many years ago. There was, of course, 

 no means of learning the identity of the parties responsible, or the 

 nature of their findings. 



Bdbcock A. — Immediately north of the Pearl Branch road the bluffs 

 fronting on the Missouri bottoms rise steeply to culminate in a narrow 

 hogback from which the ground falls away more gradually east and 

 south to the creek. Within the limits of figure 12 this hogback no- 

 where assumes a width of more than 10 yards, and much of it is even 

 narrower. A heavy growth of timber covers the west slope, but on 

 the Pearl Branch side sumac and similar low growths are more 

 typical. Along the ridge we tested several small elevations, which 

 suggested artificial mounds, but all gave only negative results. The 

 two mounds located on the map had both been opened within the 

 two or three years preceding our investigations. 



Mound A lay at the upper end of the ridge (fig. 12, 10)^ just south 

 of the point where it widens sufficiently to offer a flat easily tilled 

 patch of ground. This is about 800 yards north of the Pearl and 

 Nolan tumuli. It was impossible to ascertain the mound limits, or 

 to estimate its height, though I doubt that the diameter ever much 

 exceeded 15 or 20 feet and the height 2 feet. A three-foot trench, 

 only recently refilled, had been cut through it in a north-south direc- 

 tion. This we reopened for a study of the profile, after which the 

 entire central burial area was completely excavated. 



The internal structure of the mound was wholly unlike those pre- 

 viously'^ explored. An elliptical basin measuring 13 feet in a north- 



