316 



MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



judging from present appearances, there are reasons for believing that 

 at least a portion of the earth used in the construc- 

 tion of the mounds was obtained here, leaving depres- 

 sions, and that, during high water, when the land was 

 overflowed, as is freqnently the case, channels were 

 washed out from them to the river. The south mar- 

 gin of the southern " washout" is fnlly 4 feet higher 

 I than the land on which the mounds stand. 



Mound No. 1. — This, which is much the larger of 

 the two, stands 130 feet from the river bank, and is, 

 exclusive of the ramp or projection, an exact circle 

 151 feet in diameter, nearly flat on top, and 30 feet 

 high at the highest point (north side), but only 27 

 feet near the south side. The diameter of the top is 

 about 70 feet. The plan of the ramp or rather exten- 

 sion, as it seems to be, is shown in Fig. 194. The 

 vertical outline of the mound, with a section of the 

 shaft, is presented in Fig. 195. The right or south- 

 ern end of this sliows the slope of the extension. 

 This has an average width on top of 20 feet. 



The mound is covered with trees such as sugar- 

 berry, walnut, hickory, and oak. One sugarberry is 

 6 feet in circumference (at stump height); a walnut, 

 5 feet; a hickory, 3.J feet; and an oak, 10 feet. The 

 shaft was carried down to the bottom. The first foot 

 was of soil (a), then 7 feet of dark sandy loam (?*), next 

 1| feet of thoroughly burned yellowish clay and saiid 

 (c), with a large percentage of ashes. This layer had 

 the appearance of having been put down and packed 

 while wet and then burned ; it was so hard that it 

 was difiicult to break it. Next 3 feet of black earth, 

 also packed {d) ; then 8J feet of pure sand (e) ; and 

 last, resting on the original surface, 6 feet of hard 

 bluish muck (/). All of these layers, except the bot- 

 tom one, had charcoal, mica, fragments of pottery, 

 and animal bones scattered through them, but the 

 last were so far decomposed that none of them could 

 be saved. 



As fragments of pottery and animal bones were 

 found in spots, together with ashes and other indica- 

 tions of fire, it is ]u-obable these were fire beds where 

 cooking had been done. All that portion of the shaft 

 below the layer of burned clay was so very dry that 

 when turned up it would crumble to dust. It is pos- 

 ^ sible that the bottom layer of blue "muck " is partly 



the original soil, as it is much like the surrounding soil, and that a part 



