88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [HI-LL. 33 



depth of 6 or G4 feet. Below this everything was disconnected and 

 fragmentary. 



Now, ordinarily, the interpretation of these facts would be quite 

 simple, as the conditions observed are in general characteristic of the 

 ordinary low mound of the region. Some of the bodies seem to have 

 been buried immediately after death; others, after having l>een ex- 

 posed to the elements on scaffolds, or otherwise (rented. Later 

 burials by the same or other peoples appear to have been made about 

 the margins of the mound and also above the hardened clay. In tin- 

 writer's view it is impossible that the nine or more bodies beneath 

 the fire-hardened clay should have drifted into that position at any 

 time or that they should have come there in any manner other than 

 as direct burials; and it is highly probable that, were it not for the 

 large supraorbital ridges and low foreheads of some of the crania, 

 the question of geological antiquity would never have been raised 

 with respect to any of these remains. 



There is nothing in the conditions connected with the bones which 

 came from the levels between 2| and G feet to suggest particular 

 antiquity. The depth at which they were found is in no way excep- 

 tional ; in fact, this depth is quite the rul^ in low mounds. The 

 absence of surface soil of darker color is not remarkable, since, 

 except where charcoal is present, the color resulting from decay of 

 vegetal matter soon disappears through chemical changes and leach- 

 ing. The presence in the neighborhood of the bones of small pebbles 

 and fossil shells would be natural, if these objects existed originally in 

 the loess of the locality, for no one burying a body would sift the earth 

 with which to cover it. The baking of the earth over the bodies was 

 not accidental, for the signs of fire diminished toward the periphery of 

 the mound, and, besides, as already stated, it was not a rare practice 

 of the aborigines of the Missouri valley to bake the surface of 

 burial mounds. It is likewise evident that this baking can not be 

 attributed to the people who buried the two or three bodies above it : 

 they would hardly have chosen a spot over a deposit of human bones 

 belonging to a previous geological age and then, after baking the 

 earth immediately covering the deposit, have buried their own dead 

 on this floor, carrying to the place 2 feet of earth for the purpose 

 of covering the bodies. It is more reasonable to suppose that these 

 people resorted to a regular burial mound of their own or of another 

 comparatively recent tribe. 



Besides the skeletal parts, which maintained more or less their 

 natural relation, there were found at deeper levels in the mound, 

 and possibly a little outside of it, human bones in small pieces. 

 These fragments were scattered and comparatively few in number 

 not more than " one bit of bone " to 5 or 6 cubic feet of earth. The 

 fragmentary character of these bones and their wide dispersal 



