On the Mounds of the West. 243 
the slabs is not so much a matter of surprise. This altar bears 
the marks of fire, and fragments of the mound builders’ orna- 
ments were found on and around it. What had originally been 
deposited there was probably removed by the modern Indians, who 
had opened the mound and buried one of their dead on the altar. 
Mounds of this class are most fruitful in relics of the builders. 
On the altars have been found, though much injured and broken 
up by the action of fire, instruments and ornaments of silver, 
copper, stone and ivory ; beads of silver, copper, pearls and shell ; 
spear and arrow-heads of flint, quartz, garnet and obsidian ; fos- 
sil teeth of the shark; teeth of the alligator; marine shells; ga- 
lena; sculptures of the human head, and of numerous animals ; 
pottery of various kinds, and a large number of interesting arti- 
cles, some of which evince great skill in art. No description of 
these can be given here. . 
_ Mounds of Sepulture-—The mounds of sepulture stand apart 
from the enclosures, and, in their average dimensions, greatly ex- 
ceed those of the first class. The celebrated mound at Grave creek 
was of this class. They lack the gravel and sand strata, which 
characterize those already described, and are destitute of “altars.” 
They invariably cover a skeleton, (sometimes more than one, as 
at Grave creek, ) which, at the time of its interment, was enclo- 
Sed ina rude framework of timber, or enveloped in or coarse 
matting, the traces, in some instances the very casts of which, re- 
main. The structure of one mound of this class, will serve to 
exhibit their peculiarities. : heii 
Fig. 2. 
The mound, of which the above is a section,* stands on the 
third “bottom” or terrace of the Scioto river, six miles below the 
* Horizontal scale thirty feet, and vertical fifteen feet, to the inch. 
