PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL: MUSEUM. 483 
side of the mound.* While sinking the shaft, the explorer has to notice 
the nature of the material composing the mound, and when he reaches 
the mortuary deposit, he will have to record all details which determine 
its character. The body was sometimes placed in a stone cist or a rude 
timber frame-work, which is now decayed, but has left its impression in 
the surrounding earth. In other instances the body was burned, and 
the mound contains only its calcined bones. Mounds have been opened 
which inelosed the rematns of several or many individuals. Some show 
a stratification, being composed of alternating layers of pebbles, gravel, 
sand, earth, &c., which are not horizontal, but conform to the convex 
outline of the mound. Ofsuch character are many of the so-called sacri- 
ficial mounds, which often inclose hearths of burned clay, serving as the 
receptacles of various articles more or less changed by the action of fire. 
This stratification has also been noticed in real burial mounds. 
The diversity in the inner structure of mounds is very great, and the 
mode of proceeding in opening one must be left to the intelligence of the 
explorer. A vertical section should always accompany the description 
of a mound.—W henever feasible, a mound should have its excavation 
filled up, in order to be restored to its original shape. 
Earthworks.—A search for relics within earthworks, and in their 
neighborhood, has frequently proved successful. Nothing short of a 
geometrical survey will fully illustrate the character of such works. 
Ruins.—The ruined buildings, cliff-dwellings, &c., in the southwest- 
ern part of this country, which have of late years attracted so much at- 
tentiou, are being carefully studied and surveyed under the auspices of 
the Bureau of Ethnology. Only the systematized efforts of exploring 
parties are adequate to the accomplishment of a work of such magni- 
tude. 
This circular, of course, is primarily designed for collectors in the 
United States; but, with proper modifications, it may prove serviceable 
to contributors north and south of this country. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
Washington, D. C., November, 1883. 
* There are sometimes sent to the National Museum specimens described as coming 
*‘from a mound” in Tennessee, or Missouri, or whatever the State may be. Such in- 
formation is insufficient. It should be clearly stated whether the object pertained to 
aprimary or secondary burial, and in either case its relation to human remains or other 
articles with which it was found associated has to be indicated. 
