THE APPALACHIAN DISTRICT. 
This district, as already defined, includes East Tennessee, western 
North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and the southeastern part of 
Kentucky. It is probable that northeastern Georgia and the north- 
western part of South Carolina should be included, but the investiga- 
tions in most of the sections named have not been sufficiently thorough 
to enable us to fix with any degree of certainty the boundaries of the 
district. 
Although there is uncertainty in reference to the area occupied by 
the people who left behind them the antiquities found in this region, 
there can be no doubt that here we find a class of burial mounds differ- 
ing in several important respects from any we have so far noticed. 
Some of the most important mounds of this class found in this dis- 
trict were discovered in Caldwell County, North Carolina, and opened 
in 1882 by Mr. J. P. Rogan, one of the Bureau assistants, aided by Dr. 
J. M. Spainhour, a resident of the county. 
As Mr. Rogan’s descriptions are somewhat full, I give them sub- 
stantially as found in his report: 
The T. F. Nelson mound.—This mound, so insignificant in appearance 
as scarcely to attract any notice, was located on the farm of Rey. T. F. 
Nelson, in Caldwell County, North Carolina, on the bottom land of the 
Yadkin, about 100 yards from the river-bank. It was almosta true circle 
in outline, 38 feet in diameter, but not exceeding at any point 18 inches 
in height. The thorough excavation made revealed the fact that the 
builders of the mound had first dug a circular pit, with perpendicular 
margin, to the depth of 3 feet, and 38 feet in diameter, then deposited 
their dead in the manner hereafter shown, and afterwards covered them 
over, raising a slight mound above the pit. 
A plan of the pit, drawn at the time (after the removal of the dirt), 
_ showing the stone graves and skeletons, is given in Fig, 20. 
The walled graves or vaults and altar-shaped mass were built of 
water worn bowlders and clay or earth merely sufficient to hold them 
in place. 
No. 1, a stone grave or vault standing exactly in the center of the pit. 
In this case a small circular hole, a little over 3 feet in diameter and ex- 
tending down 3 feet below the bottom of the large pit, had been dug, 
the body or skeleton placed perpendicularly upon its feet, and the wall 
built up around it from the bottom of the hole, converging, after a 
height of 4 feet was reached, so as to be covered at the top by a single 
soapstone rock of moderate size. On the top of the head of the skeleton 
and immediately under the capstone of the vault were found several 
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