THOMAS.] " * THE OHIO t)JSTRIC"i;. ' 571 



. lar and the oiitei' luargJns .of tlie mass are usually much sloped. Be- 

 tween the top layer of gravel and the clay structure at the bottom there 

 are generally frotu one to four thin layers of sand_. This type is co-'ifined 



.almost exclusively to the southern half of Ohio; the' exceptions, so far 

 as known, being in Illinois and West Virginia. 



Some of the mounds of this typ«, as has been shown by thv ('x]ilora- 

 tions of the Bureau ageiits and others, were certainly used by the build- 

 ers as ])laces for depositing the dead. 



Other mounds not used for burial pur^joses are quite generally sup- 

 posed to have been erected as signal stations. Whde many of them 

 are undoubtedly well situated for this purpose and no other exi)lana- 

 titjn caw now be given for their use, yet I must confess to considen'ble 

 df>ubt of the correctness of this conclusion. Of all those seen by the 

 writer the one best situated for this purpose is found. in Knox county, 

 Ohio, and* described in the preceding volume as the'Staats. mound. It 

 was opened by Mr. Middleton,.of the Bureau, and found to contain a 

 large amount of ashes, but no indications of burial. The outer border 

 was surrounded by a low stone wall. From this, which is located upon 

 a high bluff point that projects' into the valley, the o])posite range of 

 hills and the valley, in which we may supjtos'e the aboriginal village 

 tf) have been situated and where-ari Indian .village was actually located 

 in early pioneer days, may be clearly- seen for some miles both above 

 and below. It is more than x^robable that the point where the mound 



■ is situated was 'selected as a signal station, and that the mound waii 

 in some way connected therewith; nevertheless the idea that mounds 

 on such elevated i)oints were built to add to the height, to extend the 

 view, seems to the writer preposterous. 



I'YliAMIDAl. ^IOl'^•DS. 



Structures of this class, though Hot cpmmon in this districf, 'iive not 

 entii-ely wanting. As examples we may reffer to those forming part of 

 the Marietta group so frequently described arid figured in works relat- 

 • ing to American archeology. Besides these we notice mounds of. this 

 class in connection with the Cedar Bank works and one with theBaum 

 works, a description of which is given in the preceding part of ihis re- 

 port. The exploration of the latter proves that in some cases luounds 

 of this class were used as depositories for the dead. 



STONK (lliAVKS. 



The fact that these areo(!casionally found in mounds has incidentally 

 been noticed. Others, however, of the box-shaped type not in mounds, 

 have been discovered in limited numbers in various parts of the dis- 

 trict. These have perhaps been observed in tl'e greatest number in 

 ^ Ashland county, Ohio, at points where old Delaware villages were 

 located. Others occur in eastern Indiana, especially in Franklin 

 county; in the Kanawha valley. West YirginiiH and elsewhere. 



