254 MOUNU EXPLOKATIONS. 



heiffht of the luoiind from the natural surface of tlie land is therefore 

 36 feet. The cone.s are level ou top, the one being i2 feet in diameter 

 at this point and the other 48. On this mound, near the top of the 

 northern cone, stands a thrifty black oak, ."> feet in diameter. 



Little excavating was done in this mound and jiothing of interest 

 found, except the ever present fire-beds of burnt clay, stone chips, and 

 fragments of potter,v. 



Mound <' is oval and rounded on top, lilO feet long, 150 broad at the 

 base, and 16 feet high. This mound and several smaller ones near 

 it are so nearly masses of lire-beds, burnt clay, fragments of stone and 

 pottery, together with more or less charcoal and ashes, as to indicate 

 clearly that they are the sites of ancient dwellings thus elevated by 

 accumulation of nuiterial during long continued occupancy. 



Mound d, PI. xiii, the finest of the group, is roughly pentangular and 

 very symmetrical, level on the top, 25 feet high (including the platform), 

 310 feet in diameter at the l)ase, and 210 feet across the top. Besides 

 the broad, sloping platform, 5 feet high, on which the mound rests, there 

 is near by, almost adjoining, a small mound which, as in many other 

 groups, forms a kind of appendage to the large one. This is about 100 

 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 8 feet high, rounded on top. 



Not only are beds of hard burned clay (the fragments of which show 

 the casts of cane and grass running through it) abundant upon the 

 surface and sides of the mound, but are also found in the wells and 

 cisterns and in other excavations made in digging cellars and for the 

 foundations of buildings. It is evident from this that it was used as a 

 dwelling place or as a location for a temple or some other public build- 

 ing. 



Mound c is double and similar in almost every resi^ect to b. The 

 platform is 5 feet high and 120 by 80 feet on top. Near the top of 

 one cone is a red oak tree, 4 feet in diameter, and near the top of the 

 other a^black oak, 6 feet in diameter. In the depression between the 

 two cones a partially decayed skeleton was found in digging a grave 

 for a person now interred there. This skeleton was under a bed of 

 burnt clay, and other similar beds are found near the surface of the 

 sides and summit. 



Mound /is oval, rounded on top, 150 feet long by 75 feet wide and 

 between 5 and 6 feet high, differing but little from several others not 

 shown on the plat. A thorough examination of this mound revealed 

 the fact that from base to summit it was composed of burnt clay, mud, 

 or alluvial earth in irregular layers formed of lumps or little masses 

 burned to a brick red or actually melted into slag. Much of the top of 

 this mound is a deposit resembling mud or clay plastering, from which 

 the sustaining canes and timbers had been burned out, leaving their 

 casts. It seems evident, therefore, that mud-walled and i)erhai)s par- 

 titioned dwellings, stood here which were destroyed by fire. 



