THOMAS.] 



MISSISSIPPI. 



273 



the .arm and Ivg of another person broken up and laid in a pile. 

 Twelve feet from the center, 4 feet from the surface, were fragments of 

 a very thin skull with particles of galenite adhering to them. Eight 

 feet from the center was a hole sunk a foot into the original soil and 

 filled with loose black dirt and ashes, in which were traces of unburnt 

 wood. From this hole a layer of unmixed ashes from 1 to (i inches in 

 thickness reached 6 feet to the south and west, sometimes on the sur- 

 face and again several inches above it. Five feet from the center, 8^ 

 feet from the surface, was the outer whorl of a conch sliell. 



A trench was next run in from the west. Eighteen feet from the cen- 

 ter was a layer of ashes, 6 feet in diameter, 18 inches from the surface 

 at its middle point and curved upward toward every side, or, in other 

 words, dished. Lying on this was the lower part of the skeleton of a 

 medium-sized man, with the feet toward the north, No bones of the 



Fig. 171. — Section along the north tronoh, mound No. 1, I'nion county. 



pelvis or parts above were found, although the leg bones were well pre- 

 served. Three feet above the surface the skeleton of a large, strongly- 

 built man lay extended at full length with the face np, the head 

 toward the east and about six feet from the center. The skull was ob- 

 tained almost entire. Under it were thirteen water-worn quartz peb- 

 bles. The femur measured 18J inches. There was no clay or hard dirt 

 packed around the frame nor any evidence that a fire had been made 

 where it lay, although the leg bones had fine charcoal sticking to them. 

 The humerus was perforated near the elbow. 



The arrangement of the dirt in this mound indicates that the origi- 

 nal mound was much smaller than it is now and that the skeleton em- 

 bedded in the a.shes was at the center. Afterward the mound was added 

 to on the eastern side. A glance at the sections figured makes this 

 plain. 



12 ETH 18 



