XXVI REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



highest has an elevation of 25 feet. Scattered about these 

 large mounds are nearly a hundred smaller ones from 

 1 to 6 feet in height and from 10 to 200 feet in diameter, 

 most of which, as the refuse indicates, represent house sites. 

 The house floors were of clay, well smoothed on the upper 

 surface, and the walls and possibly the coverings were also of 

 clay, supported by a framework of canes. The clay in many 

 cases has been baked, but whether from design in building or 

 tln-ough the burning of the structure surmounting the moiind ' 

 is not easily determined. There are numerous large pits about 

 the border of the site, from which the earth used in building 

 the mounds was apparently obtained. The area covered by 

 the village is thi-ee-fourths of a mile by half a mile. 



In the spring of 1891 Mr. Holmes began a systematic 

 exploration of the tide-water region in Maryland and Virginia, 

 which included a study of the art remains and of the phe- 

 nomena of shell banks and \'illage sites, as well as the map- 

 ping of all sites which have interest to the historian and the 

 archeologist. In this work he was assisted by Mr. William 

 Dinwiddle, and for a short period by Mr. Gerard Fowke. 



Tln-ough documentary e\adence it is known that the tide- 

 water region was occupied hj tribes of Algonquin stock be- 

 longing to the Powhatan confederacy. So thorough was their 

 occupation of this country that along the water courses nearly 

 every available site bears evidence of it and, in the salt and 

 brackish sections of the water courses, shell banks (the kitchen- 

 middens of this people) cover the shores in almost continuous 

 lines. The sites were so numerous that a careful study of all 

 was found to be impracticable, and it was decided to select 

 for detailed examination a small number which are typical. 

 On the Potomac the following localities were chosen for 

 special study: The ^ncinity of Little falls at the head of 

 tide water; the site of Smith's town of " Nacotchtank," now 

 Anacostia; " Chapowamsie " island, at the mouth of the creek 

 of that name; the site of the village of " Patawomeck, " on 

 Pototnac creek; the great shell mounds of Pope creek and 

 the ovster-dredo-ino- stations about the mouth of Wicomico 

 river. Many sites on the western shore of Chesapeake bay and 



