THOMAS. ] MOUNDS OF THE KANAWHA VALLEY. 55 
One 20 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, with a beech tree 30 inches 
in diameter growing on it, was opened by running a broad trench through 
it. The material of which it was composed was yellow clay, evidently 
from an excavation in the hillside near it. Stretched horizontally on 
the natural surface of the ground, faces up and heads south, were seven 
skeletons, six adults and one child, all charred. They were covered 
several inches thick with ashes, charcoal, and fire-brands, evidently the 
remains of a very heavy fire which must have been smothered before it 
was fully burned out. Three coarse lance-heads were found among the 
bones of the adults, and around the neck of the child three copper beads, 
apparently of hammered native copper. 
Another mound, 50 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, standing guard, 
as it were, at the entrance of an inclosure, was opened, revealing the 
following particulars: The top was strewn with fragments of flat rocks, 
most of which were marked with one or more small, artificial, cup-shaped 
depressions. Below these, to the depth of 2 or 3 feet, the hard yellow 
clay was mixed throughout with similar stones, charcoal, ashes, stone 
chips, and fragments of rude pottery. Near the center and 3 feet from 
the top of the mound were the much decayed remains of a human skele- 
ton, lying on its back, in a very rude stone-slab coffin. Beneath this 
were other flat stones, and under them charcoal, ashes, and baked earth, 
covering the decayed bones of some three or four skeletons which lay 
upon the original surface of the ground. So far as could be ascertained, 
the skeletons in this mound lay with their heads toward the east. No 
relics of any kind worthy of notice were found with them. 
Another mound of similar size, upon a dry terrace, was found to con- 
sist chiefly of very hard clay, scattered through which were stone chips 
and fragments of rude pottery. Near the natural surface of the ground 
a layer of ashes and charcoal was encountered, in which were found 
the remains of at least two skeletons. 
A mound some 200 yards south of the inclosure, situated on a slope 
and measuring 50 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, gave a some- 
what different result. It consisted wholly of very hard clay down to the 
natural surface of the hill-slope. But further excavation revealed a 
vault or pit in the original earth 8 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 5 feet deep 
at the upper end. In this was found a decayed skeleton, with the head 
up hill or toward the north. Upon the breast.was a sandstone gorget, 
and upon it aleaf-shaped knife of black flint and a neatly polished hem- 
atite celt. ‘The bones of the right arm were found stretched outat right 
angles to the body, along a line of ashes. Upon the bones of the 
open hand were three piles (five in each) of small leaf-shaped flint knives. 
As the four small moundsjust mentioned pertain tothe Clifton groups, 
in the Elk River Valley, we will call attention to one or twoof the Charles- 
ton group, for the purpose of affording the reader the means of com- 
parison. 
Below the center of No. 7 (see Plate), sunk into the original earth, 
was a vault about 8 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. Lying ex- 
