THOMAS.] WEST VIRGINIA. 437 



stands thus isolated. A circular shaft 11 feet in diameter was sunk down 

 through the center to the bed rock a foot below the base of the mound. 

 A rock heap at the top had been made in a depression evidently caused 

 by the caving in of a vault. This rock heap had been disturbed by 

 parties who found a very large skeleton with some stone weaj)ons. 

 Beneath it sandstone slabs as heavy as a man could lift were scattered 

 through the shaft, and at the bottom enough of them standing and 

 lying at all angles to have covered the vault, and appearing to have 

 been hurled thus by the caving in of the roof. Excex>ting the outside 

 covering and 3 or 4 feet at the bottom of soil like that about it and the 

 stones mentioned, the entire mound was composed of ashes, mosjtly 

 pure, but in a few i)laces slightly mixed with earth, all very light and 

 easily shoveled. The somewhat sloping, natural surface had been lev- 

 eled up by a layer of clay, then a bark floor laid down, and this covered 

 with a layer of clean ashes over a space larger than the area of the 

 vault, which must have been nearly square, about 12 feet on either side, 

 and placed diagonally to the cardinal points. Prostrate in the ashes 

 were the remains of at least C adults and some children, placed par- 

 allel, heads east. Owing to the condition of the mound at the bottom, 

 being very wet, the bones were so decayed that it was impossible to 

 tell how many persons had been buried here. Not a single relic of any 

 kind was found with the remains. The casts of posts and roof timbers, 

 fiom 6 to 14 inches in diameter, mainly of oak, were found, but the 

 height of the structure could not be determined. As near as could be 

 judged, it was probably 5 or 6 feet high and covered with heavy cross 

 timbers, some of which extended several feet beyond the walls, and 

 upon these had been placed a layer of flat sandstones, a huge pile 

 of ashes being thrown over all. The stone grave at the toj) indicates 

 an intrusive burial. 



Numerous rock etchings were formerly to be found along this part of 

 the Kanawha valley, but most of these have been destroyed; yet enough 

 remain to show their rude character. 



On the Miller farm, 3 miles above the mouth of the Kanawha, is a 

 rock which has rolled down from the clifls and lodged near the ancient 

 trail. The face of this detached fragment, some 20 feet long by 4 wide, 

 is covered with figures of animals, birds (one double-headed), serpents, 

 etc. Dr. Shaw, of Point Pleasant, says the figures were much plainer 

 fifty years ago, and that one of them represented a horse in advance of 

 a number of horse tracks, pointing down the river, probably a record 

 by modern Indians of the march of a party of white men. 



Below the mouth of the Kanawha the caving in of the bank of the Ohio 

 had exposed a wall of stone, on some of the slabs of which were rude 

 totemic and other marks made by some pecking tool. Careful excava- 

 tions revealed a circular inclosure about 100 feet in diameter, inside 

 measurement. The wall was composed of angular slabs of various 

 sizes fi'om the hills near by and averaged 25 feet across the base by 3J 



