MOUND EXPLORATIONS AT TOOLESBORO, IOWA. 4 1 



bounding our work toward the south, on whose inner slope the two 

 bodies lay. 



Deeming it useless to proceed further in this quarter, we abandoned 

 the southern part of the mound, cutting away the supporting pillars 

 behind us, thus completing the exposure of almost the entire floor of 

 this section, and afterward filling in with the loose earth which had ac- 

 cumulated in the north half of the trench. 



The floor at this end being again laid bare, we proceeded as before, 

 tunneling under for eight or ten feet at its sides and end, finding no 

 indications, however, of another burial — finding nothing, indeed, but a 

 continuation of the level floor toward the bluff, which, so far as we fol- 

 lowed it, showed no rim-like rise to the north corresponding to that on 

 the opposite side. 



As we had devoted most of our available time to this mound, and 

 there were no indications to encourage further research, we decided to 

 quit work here, and replaced the earth in and over the trench, leaving 

 the contour of the mound but little disturbed. 



Had the initial trench been extended a few feet further south, and 

 carried down at once at this end, to the floor, we would have come 

 directly upon the skeletons and the relics accompanying them; but a 

 better insight into the structure of the mound and a fuller assurance 

 that nothing of interest was left undiscovered, well repaid the addi- 

 tional toil. 



In addition to the work done on Mound No. 7, we made a partial 

 examination of No. 8, situated some two hundred feet further west, and 

 also of a small mound about half a mile south-east of the village. No. 

 8 is probably the largest of its group. In the early settlement of the 

 region it had been utilized as a building site, a large depression to the 

 south of the center indicating where the cellar had been. Due allow- 

 ance for the leveling effects of time under the circumstances of its oc- 

 cupancy, leaves for the mound a diameter of one hundred and forty 

 feet and an altitude of eleven. 



To the south of the center, partially in the cellar depression, and ex- 

 tending in a north-easterly direction, we opened a trench three and a 

 half feet wide and sixteen feet long. In the trench, at a depth of about 

 nine feet, we came upon the floor, which was simply a layer of yellow 

 clay about a half inch in thickness, resting on black loam, doubtless 

 the original surface soil. Immediately above the clay, also, was the 

 same black loam, the interior of the mound being here moist and sod- 

 den by reason of the depressed excavation. In the trench, resting on 

 the floor and covered by loam, we found parts of four skeletons, much 



[Proo. D. A. N. S., Vol. V.] 6 [August 25, 1887.] 



