48 BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS. 
It is possible that fires were built at different levels, open fires, and that most of 
the ashes were blown away by the winds which often sweep over the plain. I have 
stated that there was first laid down a sort of floor of wood, on which the body was 
placed. On the same floor were placed about 500 copper beads, forming a line almost 
around the body. 
In addition to these copper beads a number of shell beads, and also 
a hollow copper implement in the shape of a caulker’s chisel, were found. 
The copper implement and beads were made of thin sheet-copper which, 
Professor Andrews says, had been *“‘ hammered out into so smooth and 
even a sheet that no traces of the hammer were visible. It would be 
taken indeed for rolled sheet copper.” Some of the bones were pretty 
well preserved. 
The professor closes his description with the remark: “ The skeleton 
undoubtedly belonged to a veritable mound-builder.” In this he is 
certainly correct, as the mode of burial in this case agrees so exactly 
with that observed by Squier and Davis in the larger mounds opened 
by them as to leave no doubt that both are to be attributed to one peo- 
ple, although the mound described by Professor Andrews is probably 
of much more recent date than those mentioned by Squier and Davis. 
What explanation shall we give of the presence in this work of thin 
sheet-copper ‘‘hammered out into so smooth and even a sheet that no 
traces of the hammer were visible,” and that ‘“ would be taken for rolled 
copper”? 
The simple and most natural explanation would be that it was derived 
from European traders and early adventurers ; and such, Iam disposed 
to believe, is the correct one. The distinction between the sheets and 
ornaments hammered from native copper with the rude implements of 
the aborigines, and many specimens made of this smooth sheet copper 
found in mounds, is too apparent to be overlooked. But of this more 
hereafter, as I shall have occasion again to refer to the subject. 
Tn another mound, 8 or 9 feet high, in the same county, he found near 
the top a considerable bed of kitchen refuse; at the bottom, on the 
original surface, ashes and burnt human bones. ‘These bones,” he 
remarks, “had evidently been burned before burial, and had been gath- 
ered in miscellaneous confusion and placed in a narrow space 5 or 6 _ 
inches wide and from 2 to 3 feet long. The ashes were doubtless 
brought with them, at least there appeared to be no evidences of a 
local fire in the reddening or hardening of the clay or in remnants of 
charcoal.” 
As bearing upon a suggestion made by Colonel Norris, and previously 
referred to,! in regard to the probable use of copper beads found across 
the limbs of a skeleton, I call attention to another statement of Pro- 
fessor Andrews. Speaking of the School-house mound he says: 
At a point near the northwestern corner of the school-house and perhaps 15 feet 
from the center of the round, there was plowed up, in extremely hard and dry dirt, 


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