FOWKE] EXPLORATIONS IN RED RIVER VALLEY 427 
A trench 14 feet wide was begun on the south slope at a level 
7 feet below the top of the mound. It was reasonable to suppose 
that at this distance the only earth to be moved, in order to reach 
the natural surface, would be a small amount that had washed down 
the slope. But there proved to be a depth of 514 feet of deposited 
material similar to that in the upper part of the mound, making 
the entire elevation as measured from here between 12 and 15 
feet. The different dumps of gray, yellow, black, and brown, thrown 
in from baskets, were as easily discernible as if they had been lined 
out with paint. They began directly on the original soil, a dark 
loam, which merged indistinguishably with the yellow clay subsoil. 
From the beginning of the outside trench, during the entire exami- 
nation, the bottom of the excavation was kept down in the subsoil. 
Some mussel shells, fragments of pottery and flint, and broken 
animal bones, including those of deer and bear, occurred sparsely 
in the earth; and there was also the right half of a human lower 
jaw, all the teeth from the canine to the third molar being in place, 
sound, white, and worn level on the crowns; the ramus was decayed, 
and the fracture, at the chin, an old one. 
A few feet from the beginning of the lateral trench was a cavity 
having the size and shape of a bushel basket and partially filled 
with loose dark earth. This had not been dug after the mound was 
built, but resulted from the decay of something deposited here, 
as the surrounding dirt was fairly hard and showed by its appear- 
ance that the object, whatever it was, had been intentionally placed 
and the earth piled around it. Scattered at random throughout 
the material removed were masses of hard-burned earth, from small 
lumps to large blocks, some of them coming from outside sources, 
others being fire beds in place. Many of the pieces were honey- 
combed with minute holes, apparently due to the burning of grass 
roots over which fires had been maintained, but none had such cavi- 
ties or impressions as would result from the burning of canes or 
twigs over which they might have been plastered; consequently 
they could not belong to the walls or roof of a building. 
The natural earth upon which the mound was built gradually rose 
as the work proceeded, and it was finally ascertained that the mound 
was not built on top of the ridge, but at its extreme end, on the in- 
cline between the top and the bottom. The depth at the assumed 
or apparent center of the mound was 9 feet; the encircling trench 
was 3 feet deeper at the eastern (downhill) margin than at the 
western side; and from the central portion the original surface 
sloped to north and south. 
It also became evident that the mound was built in three stages 
or at three periods. A section across the center showed that at the 
