FOWKE] EXPLORATIONS IN RED RIVER VALLEY 421 
corn, squash, and perhaps other forms of food. A leaf, apparently a 
corn blade, had been placed over the top. Earth settling into the vase 
and hardening had preserved the form of these substances. Frag- 
ments of four other small pots were found. Wood or bark was above 
and below the remains. They lay partly on the dumped clay and 
partly on earth filling a depression which had been dug into and 
through this at the center of the old mound. It was clear that, so far 
from there having been a grave beneath the mound, the crumbly con- 
dition of the clay above the bodies had ensued from the destruction of 
some protective structure placed over them; the postholes noted may 
have belonged to such a shelter. The bones lay on a level surface; 
the material beneath them had not been affected by the settling. 
It was apparent that the platform on which they lay was in use, it 
may be, as the site of a house long before the interments had been 
made. 
The hole, or ash pit, under them measured 314 feet across and 
extended a foot into the black soil below. Successive fires had been 
made in it, and from time to time some earth had fallen in or been 
thrown in, as ashes, charcoal, and soil, some of it slightly burned, 
were intermingled. The soil may have been used to smother the 
fire when it was no longer needed; or it may have fallen in while 
the pit was in service as a barbecue hole. It must be that the site 
was abandoned while the pit was only partially filled; for above the 
ashes it was filled almost to the top with many thin layers of silt, 
proof that it had been exposed to numerous rains. 
The loose condition of the clay above these bones continued as far 
as the trench was carried; in fact, it was so disintegrated that, at the 
wall face, where work ceased, parts of it could be spaded. ‘There 
may be other burials beyond this point. Fragments of four pots, 
crushed flat, occurred in as many different places; but as all of them 
were imperfect they had probably been thrown away and not buried 
with bodies. 
At the face, west of the center line, was an excellent impression 
of a small, well-made basket of split cane or oak strips. 
In the east wall, 2 feet north of center, 4 feet up, were fragments 
of a child’s bones, soft as ashes. Bark or wood had been placed 
above and below the body. This was the seventeenth and last burial 
place found; it is impossible to say how many bodies had been in- 
terred, even in the space cleared out, which was not more than one- 
fourth of the entire mound. But the great difficulty of removing the 
compact clay, the frequent storms, the excessive rainfall during the 
three months these explorations were under way, amounting to 21 
inches above the normal average, and particularly the almost total 
lack of results were sufficient reasons for ceasing operations. Plate 
68, b, shows the trench at the close of the work. 
