216 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
surveyed and examined them, into ‘‘Mounds of Sacrifice,” “Mounds of 
Sepulture,” and “Mounds of Observation” The first kind only, in which 
the so-called “altars” are found, will be noticed. 
At the center of each of the mounds of this class, and on the ground- 
level, there was found a bed of clay, artificially formed into a shallow basin, 
and then hardened by fire. These basins have been termed “altars” by 
Squier and Davis in their work on the ‘Ancient Monuments of the Missis- 
Fria. 49.—Mound, Artificial Clay Basin. 
sippi Valley.” Mr. Squier remarks in a résumé of this work, published 
separately, that “some are round, others elliptical, and others square or 
parallelograms. * * * The usual dimensions are from five to eight 
feet.”? 
At Mound City, on the Scioto River, there is a group of twenty-six 
mounds in one inclosure, an engraving of one of which, taken from Mr. 
Squier’s paper, is shown in Fig. 49. It is seven feet high by fifty-five 
feet base, and contained the artificial clay basin in question. F F is the 
basin, which is round, and measures from ¢ to d nine feet, and from a to e 
five feet. The height from 6 to e¢ is twenty inches, and the dip of the curve, 
atoe,is nine inches. ‘The body of the altar,” Mr Squier remarks, ‘is 
burned throughout, though in a greater degree within the basin, where it 
‘Observations, ete., Trans. Am. Eth, Soce., ii, 158. 
