472 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



removed) bad probably been folded or bundled before burial, tbe few 

 fragments of skulls found being near the center of the piles. Tbe entire 

 bottom of the pit was covered 2 inches deep with coals and ashes. 

 Over the bones and ashes was a layer (fo) of blue clay, which tilled 

 the pit about even with the original surface of the ground. Six inches 

 above this, near the center of the mound, was a small quautity of burnt 

 human bones, the remains of a single skeleton ((>). These appear to 

 have been burnt where they lay. With skeleton No. 3 in the pit were 

 two stone gorgets and a stone tube. The letters f e indicate the orig- 

 inal surface, and a the mass of the mound. 



THE HOPETON WOKKS.' 



Neither the parallel walls nor the smaller circles can now be traced. 

 The walls reached the bank of the terrace just over an overflowed 

 bottom, and the river is now but a short distance away to the left. The 

 large circle is much iiattened on the easteru side. It reaches to the 

 foot of and slightly up the sloiie of the terrace above. If continued 

 with the same curve it has at the other parts, it would run up nearly 

 to the top of the slope. Numerous low places exist about the entire 

 work, where earth may have been removed to the depth of a foot. 

 These may, however, be in great i)art natural. A considerable amount 

 of dirt must have been taken from the bluff above, both at the points 

 marked by Squier and Davis and at the ravine, or wash, opposite 

 the junction of the circle and square. There would be no difficulty in 

 getting clay at the bluffs or at the ravine to the southeast of the works. 

 The walls of the square, so far as examined, are of the same material 

 as the soil around^a mixture of sand, gravel, and clay. At the north 

 west corner of the square the opening is partly filled up, the lowest 

 l)oint at the end of the western wall being about a foot above the 

 natural surface, rising and widening gradually ti'om that place to the 

 top of the northern wall, resembling somewhat a graded way on a small 

 scale. 



A resurvey of the cu'cle and square was made by Mr. Middleton, on 

 behalf of the Bureau, in 1888, the notes of which are as follows : 



The only parts of this group we uotice here are the hirge circle and the connected 

 square. 



These works are situated ou the general level of the Scioto valley, designated by 

 Squier and Davis " The .Second Terrace," which here stands about 30 feet above the 

 river level. The walls of the circle and sqiuire are yet generally distinct and, with 

 the exception of a single break in the circle and one or two slight ones in the square, 

 can be readily traced. In fact, the wall of the square is yet 5 feet high. The circle 

 is more worn, the western half averaging about 2 feet high, while the eastern half 

 is lower, fading out for a short distance near the northeast corner of the square. 

 They are situated close to the foot of the blntt', which lorms the slope to the upper 

 level, here between 30 and 40 feet above that ou which the work stands. As will be 



' Squier & Davis, Anc. Mon., PI. xvii. 



