270 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, LOWER ТОМВІСВЕЕ RIVER. 
MOUNDS BELOW BEAVER CREEK, MARENGO COUNTY. 
In woods, almost at the waters edge, about one mile below Beaver creek, on 
property of Mr. Joseph H. Compton, of Nanafalia, Alabama, were four small mounds. 
These mounds were-completely dug down by us with the exception of part around 
а tree in one mound and of certain marginal portions in all the mounds, which 
seemed not to have belonged to them originally, but to be due to wash of water. 
As no bones or artifacts were found until considerable digging had been done by us, 
it is probable our estimate was a correct one. 
The southernmost mound was about 40 yards distant from its nearest neighbor. 
Its height was 3 feet 5 inches; the diameter of its circular base, 45 feet. Near the 
eastern side was a deep depression whence material for the mound had come. Pre- 
vious diggers had left a shallow trench, 5 feet in width, extending inward 19 feet 
from the eastern margin. Along this trench and in material thrown from it were 
small fragments of human bones. 
The mound, which contained much more sand in the upper than in the lower 
part, seemingly had been built on a dwelling site which contained the usual debris, 
including fresh-water mussel-shells (Lamzpsz/zs rectus, L. purpuratus, L. anodon- 
toides). 
From the mound came pebble-hammers, pebbles, chips of quartzite, small masses 
of fossil wood, a quantity of limonite with the surface transformed into hematite, 
and a pebble much worn as a smoothing implement. But few bits of earthenware 
were met with, and these are of inferior quality. In but two or three cases had 
there been attempt at decoration, and this, rudely done, is of the kind known as 
cord-marked, which, as Professor Holmes! has shown, is made with the aid of a cord 
wrapped around a wooden paddle. 
Human remains, decayed through and through, were met with in six places, in 
addition to the fragments of bone referred to as lying near the trench. These 
burials are as follows: 
Burial No. 1.—A fragment of a skull. 
Burial No. 2.—4 skeleton lying at full length on the back, 2 feet below the 
surface, with charcoal under it and extending somewhat beyond it. 
Burial No. 3.—Four feet from the surface, with charcoal above it, was a full- 
length skeleton on its back, having near the skull, grouped together, six fragments 
of quartzite, three of which, fairly sharp at one end, may have seen service as 
drills. With these were one bit of sandstone, a small jasper, arrowhead, and part 
of what may have been an implement of bone. On the thorax of this skeleton lay 
a spearhead or dagger, of quartzite, 7.25 inches long by 2.25 inches wide. 
Burial Хо. 4.—Immediately by the side of Burial No. 3 was an elongated 
bunch of bones beneath charcoal. 
Burial No. 5.—On a layer of charcoal, 3 feet from the surface, lay a skull, with 
a pair of femurs 2 feet distant. 
Burial Хо. 6.—A skull and certain scattered bones lay 20 inches from the 
surface, with charcoal beneath them. 
' "Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States.” 20th Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn., p. 73. 
