MORGAN. ] SUPPOSED GROUND-SECTION OF HOUSE. il 
and the gateway in front. Such at least is the object which the presence 
of the mound in each case suggests. 
In the engraving, Fig. 48, there is a ground plan of a section of one 
of the long-houses resting upon the restored embankment. It shows eight 
apartments upon opposite sides of the central passage, each nine feet wide 
by six feet deep, and surrounded by raised bunks used both for seats and 
beds. The passage is eight feet wide and runs through the house from end 
to end, with fire-pits in the center for each four apartments. In interior 
plan it is an exact transcript of the long-house of the Iroquois, and therefore 
adapted to the joint habitation of a large number of related families, and 
to the practice of communism. 
Another section shows the embankment below the line A—B, which, as 
stated, is ten feet high upon a base thirty-seven feet wide, and with a sum- 
mit platform twenty-two feet wide, which forms the floor of the house. 
Above this is a cross-section of the structure Round posts six inches in 
diameter are set in the ground upon the lines of the central passage, defin- 
ing also the several stalls. These posts, which rise eight feet above the 
level of the floor and are forked at the top, support string-pieces which run 
the length of the house Against these, planks of split timber are placed 
so as to form a sloping external wall, and these are covered with clay and 
eravel a foot or more thick. A simpler method would be the use of poles 
set close together and sunk in the ground, afterwards coated in the same 
manner. Cross-pieces of round timber rest upon the stringers over each 
pair of posts. The roof over the central passage is formed independently 
of poles bracing against each other at the center from opposite sides. This 
is also covered with concrete or mud mortar. Openings through the roof 
are left over the fire-pits for the exit of the smoke. The principle of con- 
struction adopted is that employed in the dirt lodges of the Minnitarees and 
Mandans of the Upper Missouri. As thus restored, this pueblo of the 
Mound-Builders is not superior in the mechanism of the houses to those of 
the tribes named. 
An elevation of a portion of one of the houses, on the court side, is 
also furnished, showing the embankment with a ladder resting upon it used 
1 There are some reasons for supposing that the Minnitarees are descendants of the Mound-Builders. 
