ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION'S IN MISSOURI 133 



wedged in place. Convinced that the pile was part of a natural out- 

 crop, he thereupon abandoned it to the hogs. Our suggestion that 

 the mound had probably been raised by Indians was viewed askance, 

 but permission to dig was soon granted. In this work the writer 

 was assisted by J. M. Shippee and H. M. Trowbridge. 



The limits of the disturbed area were readily determined owing 

 to the softer fill and to the presence of sticks and other extraneous 

 materials. These, when removed, left an elliptical basin nearly 8 

 feet long by 3 or 4 feet wide, with a maximum depth of about 30 

 inches; the long axis lay east- west. At each end was exposed a 

 short section of dry wall. These were next traced out and were found 

 to enclose a subrectangular area, 8 by 10 feet, with rounding corners. 

 In the undisturbed northern portion of the enclosure, the upper 12-18 

 inches of fill was a dark humous loose-textured soil containing a few 

 limestone boulders. Other soft fire-reddened stones, presumably 

 thrown or fallen in, were encountered in considerable numbers below 

 the humous topsoil. At the south end they appeared to have been 

 piled to within a foot of the surface against the inner end of a narrow 

 walled passageway. In the northeast quarter of the chamber there 

 was evidence of an intensely hot fire at the 17-inch level, below which 

 the fill had been burned a brick-red color to a thickness of nearly a 

 foot. Less marked indications of similar burning occurred at 20 

 inches in the northwest quarter. A few small bits of charcoal were 

 observed but no ashes. 



Under the burnt and rock-laden soil was an 8-inch layer of dark 

 earth practically devoid of charcoal, stones, or other foreign matter. 

 This rested directly on undisturbed olive-colored clay on which the 

 lower course of wall slabs had been laid. A scant 6-8 inches beneath 

 this clay surface a test hole exposed what we at first took to be a flat 

 carefully laid floor of limestone flags. Further investigation shov/ed 

 that this rock layer maintained a remarkably even surface beyond 

 the mound limits to the north and south, from which we concluded 

 that it represented a natural stratum of tabular limestone. 



The walls of the enclosure were only moderately well laid up ; they 

 were seldom plumb, and there had apparently been no serious attempt 

 at securing stones of uniform thickness. In consequence there was 

 nothing like continuity of courses from one wall to the next. Max- 

 imum height of the wall, at the north side, was about 40 inches. At 

 no point did we break through to determine the details of construc- 

 tion, but short drifts run in from the north, east, and south sides 

 indicated that the base of the walls at these points averaged slightly 

 over six feet in breadth. This would give the original , mound a 

 maximum diameter of less than 24 feet. 



