THOMAS. | ETOWAH MOUNDS, GEORGIA. 97 
the tribe by which it was built was strong in numbers and might easily 
send forth five hundred warriors to greet the Spaniards. The locality 
is also within the limits of De Soto’s route as given by the best author- 
ities; and lastly, there is no other mound within the possible limits of 
his route which will in any respect answer the description. As Garcil- 
lasso must have learned of this mound from his informants, and has de- 
seribed it according to the impression conveyed to his mind, we are 
justified in accepting it as a statement of fact. Iam, therefore, satis- 
fied that the work alluded to is none other than the Etowah mound 
near Cartersville, Georgia, and that here we can point to the spot where 
the unfortunate Adelantado rested his weary limbs and where the em- 
bassadors of the noted eacique of Cutifachiqui delivered their final 
message. 
Recently the smallest of the three large mounds of this group was 
opened and carefully explored by Mr. Rogan, one of the Bureau assist- 
ants. As the result will be of much interest to archeologists aside 
from the question now under discussion, although belonging to the 
Southern type of burial mounds not discussed in this paper, I will 
venture to give a description of its construction and contents as a means 
of comparison and as also bearing somewhat on the immediate question 
under discussion. This mound is the one marked ¢ in Jones’s plate ;! 
also ¢ in Colonel Whittlesey’s figure 2.2. A vertical section of it is given 





Fic. 40.—Vertical section, small mound, same group. 
in Fig. 40. The measurements, as ascertained by Mr. Rogan, are as fol- 
lows: Average diameter at the base, 120 feet ; diameter of the level top, 
60 feet; height above the original surface of the ground, 16 feet. The 
form is more nearly that of a truncated cone than represented in the 
figures alluded to. 
The construction was found, by very thorough excavation, to be as 
follows: the entire surrounding slope (No. 4, Fig. 40) was of hard, tough 
red clay, which could not have been obtained nearer than half a mile; 
the cylindrical core, 60 feet in diameter and extending down to the 
original surface of the ground, was composed of three horizontal layers; 
the bottom layer (No. 1) 10 feet thick, of rich, dark, and rather loose 
loam; the next (No. 2) 4 feet thick, of hard, beaten (or tramped) clay, 
| Jones's Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Chap. Vi, Pl: 
* Smithsonian Report 1880, p. 624. 
5 ETH 7 


