THOMAS.] 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



425 



higli, and was composed throughout of a compact mass of yellow clay 

 unlike anything immediately around it. 



Mound 21, or the Great Smith mound. This, the largest of the 

 entire series, represented on PI. xxvii, is a somewhat regular cone 

 175 feet iu diameter at the base 

 and 35 feet high. A section with 

 partial restoration is given in Fig. 

 298. It is a mound of two stages ; 

 the first building carried it to a 

 height of 20 feet; after a consider- 

 able time had elapsed another 

 stage of work carried it to its pres- 

 ent height. The top, which was ^ 

 flat with a central depression, ? 

 measured about 30 feet in diame- 'i 

 ter. On this were an oak stump I 

 fidly i feet across and a black | 

 walnut of about the same size, g 

 The surface, in the depression at ~. 

 the top, was covered with an ii reg- g 

 ular layer of stones ; beneath them '^ 

 wereothers setupedgewisearound ? 



a circle 7 feet in diameter. The -■" 



pi 

 stones in and about this pit be- g 



ing removed, it was found to be 4 g. 



feet deep and paved with a floor g 



of flat stones, upon which lay a | 



skeleton much decayed and lack- ,, 



ing the head. Slight traces of fire » 



were seen, but no evidence of a d 



cofiQn or covering of bark, a meth- g- 



od of bmial so common in this re- " 



gion. This depression resulted, 



as will be shown further on, fi-oni 



the caving in of a vault in the 



mound, and it is probable that the 



skeleton in this stone grave was 



an intrusive burial, placed here 



after the builders of the mound 



had abandoned it. A shaft 12 feet 



in diameter at the toi) was carried down to the bottom of the mound. 



At the depth of 6 feet a small heap of bones was encountered, evi- 

 dently those of a bundled skeleton, as some of them bore unmistakable 

 signs of having been weathered and bleached before final burial. 



At 9 feet was an entire adult skeleton of medium size, lying extended 



