284 MOUNT) EXPLORATIONS. 



pieces of pottery somewhat resembling tile. The soil being removed, 

 it was found that the clay bed and layer of ashes gave out toward the 

 northwest, at the end of 7^ feet in this direction. About 4 feet south 

 of the skeleton mentioned was a hearth of burnt clay, on which was a 

 thick layer of ashes. This hearth was in the form of an irregular 

 square, 2J feet in diameter and 2 inches thick ; near by were a few 

 fresh-water shells. A few inches over 7 feet south of the skeleton and 

 at the same depth the much-decayed skeleton of a child, face down 

 and head uoithward, with a pot at each side of the head. Here was 

 another corner of the clay bed. By working westward along the edge 

 for the distance of a little over 7 feet another skeleton was found nearly 

 turned to dust; by it was only one j^ot, and near it another fireplace 

 like the one before described. All the corners of what appeared to 

 have been the floor of a house were worked out; then the middle of 

 the square, which contained nothing but the top soil, the clay bed, and 

 ash layer were removed to the sandy loam of the base. When the 

 trench had been extended southward to a point about 32 feet from the 

 south end a layer of burnt cane 2i feet below the surface of the mound, 

 but little more than an inch thick, was discovered, covering an area 

 about 6 feet in diameter. The canes were in very small pieces. Near 

 the middle of the mound, at the depth of 8 feet and apparently on the 

 original surface of the ground, was a burnt-day hearth or fireplace, 

 about 2J feet in diameter, circular in form, and covered with a layer 

 of ashes. Two cylindrical pieces of charcoal about 3 inches in diameter 

 were found in the earth just outside of the fireplace on the west side, 

 probably the remains of posts. Twenty feet from the south end, at the 

 depth of G| feet, was a layer of ashes, charred grass, and sticks, about 



2 inches thick and covering a circular space about 6 feet in diameter. 

 Scattered through the earth of the mound were fragments of ^lottery, 

 animal bones, flint chips, and a few stone implements. The mound is 

 overflowed by the greater freshets of the Tennessee river. 



nOUGLASS MOUNDS. 



Near lock No. 10 of the Mussel Shoals canal survey, about 12 miles 

 east of Florence, are two mounds on the Douglass fiirm. They are 

 about half a mile from the river on an elevated hill overlooking the 

 valley. The two are about 50 feet apart, each 30 or 35 feet in diameter, 



3 feet high, and composed throughout of red clay, which extends some- 

 what below the original surface of the ground. Here and there just 

 below the surface of one were rude flint hoes, arrow points, and lance 

 heads; near the sitrface of the other were four large rude stone imple- 

 ments. No skeletons, burnt clay, ashes, or charcoal were found in 

 either. 



The country immediately about the Mussel Shoals was occupied by 

 Cherokees when the first whites settled here. This area has long been 



