THOMAS! WEST VIRGINIA. 435 



which seems to have been baked by heavy tires tliat left abundance 

 of charcoal, ashes, and calcined bones, some of them human. Spalls 

 and fragments of pottery were found all through the mound. At the 

 bottom were two much decayed skeletons, prostrate, heads west. A 

 stone and a hematite celt and some spearheads were witli them. 



The other mound was circular, 40 feet at base and .5 feet high. Noth- 

 ing was found in it. 



At the dejith of 5 feet, in a mound feet high, near by, were two 

 skeletons, with two celts and some arrowheads. 



Between Winfleld and Buffalo are many mounds in which numerous 

 relics of stone, bone, and copper have been found. Two miles above 

 the latter place several acres of a high bottom are nearly covered with 

 mussel shells, spalls, potsherds, and stone implements. Two miles 

 below are two mounds, about 50 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, in 

 which were found only human bones beneath a layer of charcoal and 

 ashes. 



MASON COUNTY. 



On the high bottom laud of Gen. John McCausland, on the south 

 side of the river, near the Putnam County line, are five mounds, from 

 30 to 90 feet in diameter and i to 8 feet high. In one of these were 

 found the fragments of a large pot. Like nearly all the mound pottery 

 of this section it was composed of pounded stone and clay. The pot- 

 tery from the kitchen-middens nearly always contains pulverized shells 

 instead of stone. 



KDCK HEAPS. 



Two of these are found on the farm of Peter S. Couch, 3 miles below 

 the mounds above mentioned. They are on opposite sides of a ravine, 

 on bluft's overlooking the river. The one on the north bluff is 40 feet 

 long north and south, 30 broad, and 4 high at its two circular well- 

 holes; these range north and south, are 8 feet apart and ;?0 inches in 

 diameter. The noithern one was partially filled with loose stones and 

 briers. Beneath these, upon the bed rock, was the skeleton of a half- 

 grown child; with it were a badly corroded iron hatchet and some 

 glass beads. Nothing was found in the other hole. The other heap 

 was similar' to the first, except that the holes were somewhat larger. 

 They contained nothing of interest. 



Between these bluffs and the river are five mounds, all of which were 

 opened. The largest was 50 feet broad and 4 feet high. The portion 

 remaining after long cultivation was composed entii-ely of very hard, 

 gray clay. A fire-bed 3 by 4 feet, 3 inches thick, lay on the original 

 surface. In another mound was a stone cist .5 feet long, and half as 

 wide and deep, resting on the natural surface and covered with a pile 

 of loose stones, over which the mound had been raised. Nothing was 

 found in it. The other three were similar to the largest, but nothing 

 of interest was discovered in them. 



