412 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



niodeni in appearance, it bears on its top a beecli stump 30 inches in 

 diameter. The material was yellow clay, evidently brought from an ex- 

 cavation in the hillside nearby. Onthe natural surface, near the center, 

 lying- horizontally on their backs, heads south, were the skeletons of 

 six adults and one child. All were thoroughly charred and without any 

 earth intermingled with them, but covered with ashes and several 

 inches of charcoal and brands. It is evident that the fire was smothered 

 before it had fully burned out. Three coarse lance heads and a fish 

 dart were found amid the bones of the adults, and at the neck of the 

 child three copper beads made of thick wire bent in a circular form. 



ELK RIVEK WORKS. 



On the opposite side of Elk river and 1 mile north of Charleston there 

 is a circular inclosure 200 feet in diameter, the wall, after many years' 

 cultivation, being still from 3 to 4 feet higher than the nearly obliter- 

 ated ditch which runs along the inside of it. From this ditch the sur- 

 face rounds up a foot or so and continues at this height all over the 

 central area. The inside of the wall is quite steep, while the outside 

 slopes off very gradually except on the north side, which runs close to 

 the face of a rocky cliff. The only opening or gateway in this wall is 

 on the east and is guarded by a conical mound 50 feet in diameter and 

 5 feet high. Strewn over the top of this mound were numerous frag- 

 ments of flat stones, many of which were marked with circular pits. 

 The removal of these only disclosed others, which were mingled with 

 very hard yellow clay, charcoal, ashes, stone chips, and fragments of 

 rude pottery. Near the center and 3 feet below the top of the mound 

 a decayed human skeleton was found, lying horizontally in a very rude 

 box-shaped stone coffin. Beneath this were other flat stones, and under 

 them charcoal, ashes, and baked earth, overlying the charred remains 

 of at least three or four other skeletons. These, judging by what 

 remained of them, must have been laid on the natural surface of the 

 ground with the heads eastward. 



Four miles farther up Elk river, on the summit of a low pass, over 

 which ran an ancient trail, was a small conical mound 30 feet in diam- 

 eter and 5 feet high. This had previously been opened to the depth of 

 3 feet, and, as was afterward learned, a human skeleton and fifteen or 

 twenty copper beads found. Carrying tlie excavation down to the 

 natural surface a single, much decayed, adult skeleton was discovered, 

 but nothing else. 



Two miles above the preceding is a group of small conical mounds 

 from 2 to 3 feet high and fr'om 20 to 30 feet in diameter. Some of these 

 were opened, but nothing of interest observed except that on the nat 

 ural surface of the earth beneath them was always found a layer of 

 chai'coal and ashes, among which were fragments of bones. 



Midway between these and the one in the pass is a group of five 

 mounds. One of these, 50 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, was opened 



