286 MOUND EXPLOKATIONS. 



BLOUNT COUNTY. 



A cave in this county containing liumaii remains is worthy of notice. 

 The remains in this case were deposited in troughs, or canoe-shaped 

 cottiiis, differing in this respect from any that liave been mentioned. 

 Tliis, which is known as ('ramxj's cave, is 15 miles south of Blountville. 

 In the baclv part is a large crevice, where it is stated the bodies were 

 deposited in the coffins. The place is certainly well adapted for secur- 

 ity from wild animals, as a few stones would suffice to close this room 

 or crevice; moreover, it is much the driest poi-tion of the cave. Per- 

 sons who saw the remains at the time they were found state that they 

 were in a good state of j (reservation; that the troughs were covered 

 with matting made of bark or cane and bound around with withes or 

 bark. Among the things found with them were wooden bowls and 

 trays*. Portions of one or two of these troughs were forwarded to and 

 received by the vSniithsonian Institution. Although the jdace had been 

 thoroughly worked over the Bureau agent succeeded, after careful 

 search, in finding part of a wooden bowl and some pieces of a trough. 

 The troughs or coffins were evidently sections of hollow trees or had 

 been hollowed out. 



SUMTER COUNTY. 

 CEDAR HUMMOCK GROUP. 



In Sec. 5, T. 17 N., K. 1 E., of Stephen's meridian, in what is known 

 locally as " Cedar hummock," with a creek on the west and a slough on 

 the east, is a group of seven mounds. The hummock land on which 

 they stand is about 10 feet above low water. The mounds are circular, 

 from 35 to 50 feet in diameter and from 2 to 4 feet high. The brown 

 sand of whicli they are chiefly composed has been taken from the soil 

 immediately around tlieni, leaving depressions which are yet distinct. 



In one of the three smaller mounds, at the depth of 2 feet, a small 

 quantity of aslies was found, and with them fragments of animal bones; 

 with these exceptions, nothing but the brown sand was observed in the 

 smaller m((unds. 



In one of the four larger, at the depth of one foot, was a single skeleton, 

 and by the thigh a stone imiilement; in another, at the depth of 3 feet, 

 was a single skeleton resting on a thin layer of charcoal and ashes, and 

 by it a few pieces of broken pottery; the third presented precisely the 

 same particulars as the second; in the foixrth, at the depth of 2 feet, 

 lay a single skeleton. 



These skeletons were invariably in the center of the mound, lying at 

 full length, but the heads in different directions, one toward the south- 

 west, another toward the northeast, and two toward the northwest. 



ELMORE COUNTY. 



Six miles north of Montgomery is Jackson lake, in which there is an 

 island surmounted, on one side, by a mound of considerable size. This 



