FOWKE] ANTIQUITIES OF MISSOURI pil 
sharpened sticks, antler points, or dressed flints, used after the 
fashion of picks or spuds; some of the resultant channels were shal- 
lower or with flatter curves than others. 
Decayed wood or bark, as loose as dry ashes, covering the bottom 
of the grave, was all that remained of a floor on which a body had 
been laid with the head toward the east. Across the grave, resting 
on solid ground, had been placed poles and split wood to shield the 
corpse; these had finally given way under pressure of earth above and 
had settled down at the sides and on the bottom. That they sup- 
ported the weight for some time was proved by the loose cloddy con- 
dition of the earth for 3 or 4 feet above the pit. 
The only remaining indication of burial was a small amount of bone 
dust resembling coarse cornmeal, and a few teeth, the latter from two 
persons, though they all lay together. Above the upper layer of 
wood, near one side of the grave, were a few fragments of bone, prob- 
ably not human. 
Distant 44 feet south from the south edge of this grave and parallel 
with it was the north margin of another grave. This was 7 feet 3 
inches long, 2 feet 6 inches wide, and on an average 13 inches deep. 
The bottom was very regular or “lumpy,” varying from 3 inches 
above to 3 inches below a median plane; it was rectangular in form 
except for the rounded corners; the tool marks here were of the same 
character as those in the first grave. As in that, too, the sides and 
bottom were lined with wood, or bark, or perhaps both, and traces 
of bone found therein were similarly covered. 
A foot south of the west end of the second grave was a hole 1 foot 
deep and wide, and 2 feet long, apparently the grave of an nifant, 
though it contained no remains. 
The only artificial objects besides the pot found in the course of 
the excavation were a hematite paint stone, the broken sandstone 
mortar, and a few flints, all loose in the earth and not intentionally 
deposited. 
MOUND NO. 5 
This mound is at the end of the curve farthest from the river, and 
was built on the slope instead of on the summit of the ridge. The 
diameter of base was 65 feet, and the elevation 12 feet. A space 
nearly circular, averaging 40 feet in diameter, was cleared out to the 
subsoil; fully 300 cubic yards of earth were removed, nearly all of 
which had to be loosened with picks before it could be shoveled. 
At a distance of 18 feet east of south from the center, 18 inches 
above the original surface, was the bottom or floor of a stone cist 
(grave A) containing fragments of an adult skeleton. The skull lay 
toward the east and projected beyond the stones. At the foot and 
along each side were stones, some of them set vertical to form the 
