436 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



A mile below thesn, on the other side of the river, in an old culti- 

 vated field strewn with mussel shells, are one large and several small 

 mounds. In all those which were explored there M'as a layer of skele- 

 tons on the natural surface, and two, or sometimes three, other layers 

 above them to a height of 5 feet. The appearance of the mounds .justi- 

 fied the statement of Mr. Couch and others that at least one more layer 

 had been removed during fifty years of steady cultivation. The skele- 

 tons were well preserved, many of them very large, in a prosti-ate posi- 

 tion, with no particular arrangement. Eemains of bark cofBns were 

 apparent, barely separated l)y layers of dirt or ashes or Itoth mingled; 

 this, with the well preserved condition of the bones, gives the appear- 

 ance of comparatively recent interment. The dirt in these mounds is 

 not so hard as in most of the others in this section. 



Three miles still farther down, on the Goshorn farm, a field on the 

 high bottoms directly fronting the river is dotted with similar mounds, 

 one of wliich is 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 7 feet high ; all seem to 

 be depositories of human skeletons lying horizontally, as in the Couch 

 mounds. From these two localities, ten skulls, over five hundred beads 

 nuide of the hollow bones of animals and birds, nearly two thousand 

 small perforated seashells, many bone bodkins, bears' tusks, flint 

 implements, fragments of pottery, stone disks, celts, aud grooved axes 

 were obtained. 



A mound 50 feet in diameter and 4 feet high was composed of exceed- 

 ingly hard, gray earth ; on the natural surface were two nearly decayed 

 skeletons. 



From Kanawha falls to the mouth of the river are abundant evi- 

 dences that the valley has been occupied by the builders of the liard- 

 cored mounds, and subseiiuently by apeoplewho accumulated kitchen- 

 middens and buried in them or in low mounds which shovel like ashes 

 or alluvial soil. The hard-cored, conical monnds and the large ones 

 having vaults are invariably on the high bottoms not subject to over- 

 flow; while the refiise heaps are upon either the first or second teiTace. 

 Though the diflferent works are often near together, with the single 

 exception of those on the Goshorn place they never intermingle, as 

 though the later comers were careful not to intrude upon the grounds 

 occupied by the more ancient works. 



THE MCCULLOCH MOUND. 



Five miles above the mouth of the Kanawha, on the south side, on 

 the farm of Charles E. McCulloch, is the largest mound in this sec- 

 tion. Unlike most of the large mounds, it is not on the river bottom, 

 but on a sloping terrace nearly a hundred feet higher, and after long 

 cultivation is still 20 feet high and fully 300 feet in circumfei'eTice. The 

 old war trail is said to have crossed the spur upon which it stands just 

 below it. No traceof inclosure, mound, or other work is to be found near, 

 a peculiar circumstance when no other large mound in the entire valley 



