100 PAVENl'OKT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



the ?aiiie size, with a small stone axe and a discoidal stone lying on 

 it. No other relics were discovered. 



In the other five, smaller mounds, which we 0])ened, I found not 

 even a trace of human bones; nor had other parties who examined 

 them before, found any so far as 1 could learn. 



In general, 1 believe, these mounds were not used for l)uriMl ]>ui- 

 poses; and, judging from the few relics found here, possibly these 

 mounds may be the work of a different tribe of mound-builders. 



In Section 13, two other mounds, four feet high, were explored. 

 In the first was a bed of ashes containing pieces of pottery and Hint. 

 The second contained fragments of pottery similar in color and ma- 

 terial to that from the lower Mississi])pi Valley. No bones were 

 f(jund. 



In Section 24, on Mr. Godfrey's farm, we also explored two mounds, 

 each about four feet high. Four feet from the top of the first was a 

 skeleton, lying in th(; usual horizontal position, with the head west- 

 ward; also a small fiint knife. In the second, about twenty-four ])a- 

 ces southward, was made an excavation of four by five feet. T\\-o 

 feet from the surface was a bed of ashes one foot thick; and above 

 this the clay was burned. In this bed of ashes were imbedded sev- 

 eral small white stones representing a rude and incomplete form of 

 a "mound-builder's pipe, intended for some animal form; l)ut they 

 slacked up so on exposure to the atmosphere, after Ix'ing washed, that 

 it was impossible to preserve them. They were probably of lime- 

 stone and burned. No other relics were found. 



Here I learned that a Mr. Potter, who resides five miles from 

 Toolesboro, was in possession of a stone tablet, taken from a mound; 

 and, hiring a horse and buggy, I visited him, and he showed me the 

 stone and told me that he found it in a mound at Toolesboro, thir- 

 teen feet below the surface, resting on a small pile of human bones. 

 It is a slab of white sandstone, two- feet long, three feet wide, and 

 three inches thick, rounded at the corners. On one side I found a 

 few signs or pictures which certainly are very old, and perhaps made 

 by the mound-l)uilders themselves; but these original signs, perhaps, 

 did not satisfy the discoverers, so .they added some English letters, 

 completely destroying the value of this specimen. The gentleman 

 kindly otfered me the stone for our Museum, but I did not wish to 

 accept a relic which had been thus tampered with. 



On this occasi(m I had the ])leasure of inspecting some very im- 

 portant relics in possession of the people there, which, however, it 

 was impossible to obtain for the Academy. 



