462 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [BTH. ANN. 44 
Fourteen feet in, near the surface of the mound, loose in the earth, 
was a spade 15 by 5 inches. 
At the same distance in, a few inches beneath the surface of the 
mound, on a thin layer of clean sand, were some fragments of bones 
of a very small infant. 
CENTER 
As the center was approached the space to be excavated narrowed 
until objects found could not be assigned to any particular sector, 
so this method of locating them can not be followed. 
Near the center, 3 to 4 feet up, were bones of an adult, scattered 
about by a groundhog which had made its burrow among them. 
Occasionally an investigator becomes unduly excited over a dis- 
covery which might be considered as somewhat in the nature of a 
practical joke unconsciously or unintentionally perpetrated. Just 
east of the center, a foot above bottom, the shovels uncovered the 
feet of a youth of small size. The work of exhumation was carried 
forward toward the head, which lay to the south. Among the 
remains were found screws with square ends, handmade nails, and a 
brass pin. Visions of mound-building Indians of a date so recent 
that they had the opportunity of procuring articles from white 
traders at a date preceding the beginning of a mound thrilled the 
workers. When the skull was reached, it proved to be that of a 
Negro boy 7 or 8 years old, and a little more digging revealed the 
walls of his grave. 
At the center, or directly under the apex of the mound, was the 
skull of a skeleton which lay in a shallow grave, extended, on the 
back, with head northeast. It was of medium size, the teeth not 
much worn. At the pelvis was a hatchet 8 inches long. 
Directly above the last skeleton was another, extended, on back, 
head southeast. The frame was massive; the teeth indicated middle 
age. It lay on a thin streak of wood or bark so decayed as to resem- 
ble ashes. ‘The pelvis rested on the skull in the grave below, with 
only the thin layer of woody material separating them. At the left 
side of the skull was a large conch shell (pl. 83, a) ; the whorl and the 
apex were separate, but whether this was due to intentional breaking 
before burial, or happened afterwards, is uncertain. At the neck 
was a string of copper beads. Between the femurs, with the point 
resting against the pelvis, was an unfinished hatchet 1714 inches 
long. (PI. 80, e.) 
There was no entire pottery in this mound, and none that seems 
to have been deposited intentionally. Scattered throughout the earth, 
however, were quantities of fragments carried in with the earth. 
They presented a great diversity of markings and decorations. 
Some of them are shown in Plate 84. 
