416 



MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



tween the two inclosm'cs, about 300 feet from eacli. The top was hov- 

 eled ill order to erect tliereon an office and judges' stand in connection 

 witli a race course about it. It is 520 feet in circuit and 33 feet high, 

 being, with one exceiition, the largest of the group; the top is 40 leet 

 across, owing to the leveling mentioned above, to which is, perhaps, 

 also due the fact that the center is 2 feet lower than the edge. 



A shaft 12 feet across at the top, narrowing to 8 feet at the bottom, 

 was sunk through the center to the original surface of tlie ground, the 

 process being aided by lateial trenches in Mdiich were offsets (see Fig. 

 292, whiclr shows a section). The material tlirough which it passed for 

 the first 2 feet was a light sandy loam. At the dejjth of 3 feet, in the 

 center of the shaft, some human l)ones («) were discovered, doubtless 

 parts of a skeleton said to have been dug up before or at the time of 

 the construction of the judges' stand. At the depth of 4 feet, in abed 

 of hard earth composed of mixed clay and ashes, were two skeletons 

 (e ('), both lying extended on their backs, heads south, and feet near the 



rorpiRjr 



Fig. 292.— Srrtioii of mound No. 1, Kanawha county, West Virginia. 



center of tlie shaft. Near the heads lay two celts, two stone hoes, 

 one lance head, and two disks. 



From this point downward for 20 feet fartlier, nearly all the ma- 

 terial in the shaft was composed of the same apparently mixed sub- 

 stance, so hard as to require the constant use of thepi(;k. At 24 feet 

 it suddenly changed to a much softer and darker colored earth, dis- 

 closing the casts and some much decayed fragments of logs and ])oles 

 from G to 12 inches in diameter. Tliese, together with the fragments 

 of bark, ashes, and animal bones which had been split lengthwise, con- 

 tinued to be found through a layer of about G feet. At the depth of 31 

 feet a humaii skeleton (c) wasdiscovered lying prostrate, head north, the 

 skull crushed, but partially preserved by contact with a sheet of cop- 

 per that probably once formed part of a headdress of some kind, only 

 fragments of which remained. By enlarging and curbing the foot of the 

 shaft, a circular space 1<> feet in diameter was uncovered, and the char- 

 acter and contents of the central, basal portion of the mound ascer- 

 tained. First, upon the well smoothed and packed surface had been 



