MOUND EXPLORATIONS AT TOOLESBORO, IOWA. 39 



these lower layers, whether wood intervened or not, the superincum- 

 bent earth was very compact, there being no appearance whatever of 

 the mound ever having been disturbed. 



Such was the structure of the mound in its southern part; but in the 

 northern end of the trench and the galleries radiating from it, neither 

 wood nor ash was found, nor any other evidence of the agency of man 

 (except, perhaps, the distinct clay layer above mentioned), save a 

 continuation of the floor, scattered over which, in greater number 

 here than elsewhere, were occasional small flint chips, raising our hopes 

 of discovery when the spade would strike against them. Throughout 

 the work in this mound, no shells or fragments of shell were seen, 

 excepting the beads hereinafter mentioned, unless, indeed, a layer of 

 what seemed an especially white ash, in contact with the decayed 

 wood, above and below, were burned or decomposed shells instead, as 

 suggested in the description of Mound Xo. 6 (Proa, Vol. I., p. 107). 

 If of ash, as they probably were, they must have been placed there 

 after burning, since the wood shows no trace of the action of fire. 

 Indeed, save one or two minute bits, no charcoal was anywhere found 

 in the mound. Not a single shard of pottery was seen, nor even a 

 stone of any size, and only a very few pebbles, small and rough, scat- 

 tered through. 



Almost immediately on starting the first gallery west, about midway 

 of the trench and two feet above its floor, we came upon a mass of 

 human bones, consisting of two femurs, a clavicle, and several bones 

 of the left arm, forearm, and hand, all in a heap, and with them a small 

 piece (the only one found) of worked flint. How they came to be 

 there, placed and dissociated as they were, we could not conjecture. 

 There was no appearance of the earth having been disturbed above 

 them, and their state of preservation was much the same as that of the 

 corresponding parts of the entire skeletons afterward found. 



Nothing further was discovered until we had tunneled several feet 

 back from the trench, where, following the thin layer of ash — here con- 

 tinuous and quite distinct on the level floor — and just after making a 

 turn to the south, we struck on a so-called copper "awl," standing up- 

 right and firmly embedded in the hard clay base. About two feet be- 

 yond this we came upon the first of a rich group of relics, viz : four 

 copper "axes," so-called; two curved-base pipes — one of calcite, trans- 

 lucent, with cylindrical bowl, and one of catlinite, finely carved in the 

 image of a hawk, with eyes of pearl ;* a large block of mica in loose 



*A similar bird pipe, with pearls for eves, was taken from Mound Xo. 6 in this trroup by- 

 Mr. Pratt's party, in 1S7;. (See Proc. Dav. Acad. Nat. Sci., Vol. I., p. 10S. ) 



