58 BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS. 
Jower than at the other margin. It was burned to a brick-red and cov- 
ered with a compact layer of very fine white ashes, scattered thickly, 
through which were small water-worn bowlders, bearing evidences of 
having undergone an intense heat. Mingled with this mass were a 
few thoroughly charred human bones. The material of the shaft, after 
the first 3 feet at the top, consisted almost wholly of finely packed ashes, 
which appeared to have been deposited at intervals of considerable 
length and not at one time. 
It is evident from this description, which is abridged from the re- 
port of the assistant, that we have here a true representation of the 
so-called “altars” of the Ohio mounds. But, contrary to the usual cus- 
tom, as shown by an examination of the Ohio works, this mound ap- 
pears to have been used by the people who erected it as a burial place, 
for the mode of construction and the material used for the body of it 
forbid the supposition that the lower burial was by a different people 
from those who formed the clay structure at the base. 
It is proper tostate that around and near the inclosure (No. 7 of Plate 
\V) were a number of stone graves of the ordinary box shape, constructed 
in the usual way, of stone slabs. j 
At this place was also discovered a pit or cache resembling those 
found at Madisonville, Ohio. A more thorough examination will proba- 
bly bring to light others. 
The descriptions of other burial mounds of this region, differing 
slightly in minor details from those mentioned, might be presented, but 
the foregoing will suffice to give the types and show the character of 
the structures of this kind in this section. The details given will, I 
think, satisfy any one that the authors of these structures were also 
the authors of the Ohio works, or that they belonged to tribes so closely 
related that we may justly consider them as one people. 
IT have been and am still disposed to connect the mound-builders of 
the Kanawha valley with those of western North Carolina, but our ex- 
plorations in the two sections have convinced me of their close rela- 
tion to the people whose mysterious monuments dot the hills and valleys 
of Ohio. That they were related in some way to the mound-builders of 
North Carolina and East Tennessee is more than probable, but the key 
to unlock this mystery, if it exists anywhere, is most likely to be found 
in the history, traditions, and works of the Cherokees, and the traditions 
relating to the Tallegwi. 
As a result of my examination and discussion of the burial mounds 
of Wisconsin, I reached the conclusion that they were built by the In- 
dian tribes found inhabiting that section at the advent of the whites, or 
by their ancestors. The data, of which but a comparatively small por- 
tion is given, seem to justify this conclusion. But the case is somewhat 
different in reference to the works of the Ohio district. Although the 
data obtained here point with satisfactory certainty to the conclusion 
that Indians were the authors of these works, it cannot be claimed that 
