494 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [BTH. ANN, 44 
ona reservation a few miles from here, “ made baskets just like these ” 
until a few years ago. They sold them to farmers and to any one else 
who would buy. 
At intervals, near the center, were casts of carbonized twigs and 
small sticks which seemed to have been set leaning outwardly at an 
angle of 45 degrees. They were not continuous, yet seemed to be 
purposely placed as if to enclose or protect something. 
At what was assumed to be the center—difficult to determine exactly 
by reason of the former excavations—was a long grave containing a 
few soft and decayed pieces of bones of a child which had been ex- 
tended at full length. On the bottom of the grave, near the middle, 
was a space about a foot across covered with minute fragments of 
shells which, from the few pieces remaining, seemed to be disinte- 
grated snail or periwinkle shells. If they were, there had been several 
hundred of them, as they formed a distinct layer in the earth. 
East of this grave was another a little more than 6 feet long. 
There was no trace of bone or of anything else in it, except two small 
pots, one at each end, both of them broken by the pressure of the 
earth. One was shaped lke a common flowerpot and contained one 
valve of a mussel shell; the other seems to be globular. 
West of the center were two circular graves, near together, each 
measuring close to 2 feet in diameter. In one was a pot ornately 
decorated; in the other was a pot with a plain surface. Both were 
broken into many pieces. No trace of bone remained in either grave. 
Six feet southwest of the center was a circular grave, in the bottom 
of which were scraps of bone burned almost to a cinder; not enough 
of them was left to determine their character. 
Two other circular graves were uncovered, one west from the 
center, near the edge of the trench, one northeast of the center; 
nothing, not even a trace of bone, was found in either. 
All of these graves were sunk through the original soil into the 
hard subsoil. The clay filling them was tough and moist, somewhat 
looser than that in the body of the mound on account of having fallen 
in, but still breaking off in clods under the pick. Bone will soon 
disappear under such conditions. In all of them the sides and bottom 
were covered with wood or bark, now completely carbonized and 
flattened like paper. The few soft decayed bones found were those 
of children; there were none left of adults. Bones of children, even 
of infants, often outlast those of persons of mature age buried in 
the same grave. 
Over much of the original surface immediately around the center 
of the mound were traces of woven or “ plaited” slivers of cane 
and white oak, apparently remains of matting which had been 
placed on the graves. 
