318 



MOUND EXl'LORATIONS. 



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crops iirc destroyed, aud the farmers impoverished. At such times 

 these mounds are the only hmd visible above a broad expanse of water, 

 and it is this fact which has given rise to the tradition among the peo- 

 ple of the vicinity that they were thrown uj) by some former owner of 

 the property to serve as places of refuge for his cattle during these 

 inundations. A quarter of a mile to the north of the mounds near the 



river bank is an extensive shell heap, com- 

 posed chiefly of the shells of Unio. Upon 

 the larger of the two mounds a simple barn 

 has been erected. This mound appears to 

 have been originally of the pyramidal type, 

 b)it since its surface has suffered so greatly 

 from the cattle that have been penned in 

 upon it and the washing occasioned by floods, 

 its origiTial character, as well as whatever 

 smaller physical features it may have pre- 

 sented, is now almost entirely lost. 



Mound Ko. 2, the one excavated, is in an 

 adjoining held, the property of a gentleman 

 of Augusta, Georgia. It is 2S0 feet due north 

 of No. 1, is conical in form, 10 feet high, and 

 70 feet in diametear. Though oiiginally sirr- 

 mounted by a small log barn, which a former 

 flood removed to a point at its base, the 

 mound had evidently remained unmolested 

 since that time, for several small cottonwood 

 trees, as well as considerable underbrush, 

 were growing upon it. 



The excavation was conducted as follows: 

 First two trenches, each 10 feet wide, were 

 cut crosswise through the center, one north 

 and south, the other east and west. These 

 were carried down to the bottom, and in 

 some places to the original pure micaceous 

 soil that underlies the mixed loam of the 

 surrounding field. The segments that re 

 mained were then cut down several feet be- 

 yond the radius that covered the interments 

 found in the trenches. In this manner the 

 mound was thoroughly excavated and all its buried contents exposed. 

 The mound is stratified, or, in other words, constituted of two dift'er- 

 ent kinds of soil, the upper being strictly sandy micaceous loam, 3 feet 

 thick; the lower a hard, compact vegetable earth, taken from what is 

 commonly called in the south '' crawfish land." This rested at the bot- 

 tom upon 9 inches of a very black and rich vegetable mold, permeated 

 throughout with innumerable small pieces of burnt pottery, charcoal, 



