222 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



exceeding 8 feet elevation. Tlie plow and i)revii)us explorers had cut 

 them to pieces and all the valuable vspeciniens had been removed. A 

 large number of pieces of clay, burnt to a brick-like substance, were ob- 

 served together with ashes, animal bones and mussel shells, indicating 

 that most of them were house sites. 



JACKSON MOUNDS. 



These are situated on the farm of Mr. B. F. Jackson, on the Little 

 river cut off, about 16 miles northwest of Osceola. 



No. 1, oval ill form, i feet high, and the longest diameter GO feet, was 

 partially occupied by the graves of three white persons, but permission 

 to dig so as not to disturb these was obtained. Three pits were carried 

 to the original surface. The first passed through a top layer of black 

 surface soil 2i feet thick, then a layer of burnt clay 10 inches thick, and 

 , below this a layer of charcoal and ashes 6 inches deep. Here, associ 

 ated with the charcoal and ashes, was a skeleton, with pots at each side 

 of the head. 



In the second jiit the results were much the same, except that in this, 

 below the skeleton a hard Hoor of well-burnt clay was encountered, 

 which was covered with 2 feet of ashes, in which were some specimens 

 of pottery, but no skeleton or bones. 



In the third the layers passed through were as the first, but no skel- 

 eton was found. 



The other mound (there were but two niouiids in the group) was some- 

 what higher than No. 1, but so occupied by modern graves that no ex- 

 amination of it could be made. 



About 30 yards from this, immediately under the surface of the 

 ground, commences a level floor of hard clay, which, so far as examined, 

 was burned to a brick red, and varied from 6 inches to nearly 2 feet 

 in thickness. This layer extended more or less continuously over an 

 area almost or quite 300 feet square. As a part of it is covered by a 

 dwelling and outbuildings, and permission to examine only certain 

 portions was given, it was not possible to determine the extent of the 

 spaces thus continuously covered. Breaking through this at the jwiuts 

 where digging was allowed, the Bureau explorer discovered, in eact 

 case at the dei)tli of from 1 to 3 feet, skeletons and pottery. In one 

 place two skeletons of adults were found a few feet apart, and close 

 by one of a child. With each adult skeleton Mere five pots, and with 

 the child one pot and two toy vessels; all were more or less embedded 

 in ashes, but the bones were not charred. 



Several separate house sites were found in which ashes and broken 

 pottery occurred. One of the vessels found here is rejiresented in Fig. 

 131. This was beneath the clay floor. 



Mr. II. B. Evans visited this county on his archeological tour in 1881, 

 in behalf of the Chicago Times. He describes a mound on the land of 

 a Mr. Sherman, at the head of Young's lake, midway between Osceola 



