CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, LOWER TOMBIGBEE RIVER. 975 
tion of certain of the mounds down to the base, and afterward returning the 
material. 
Eight mounds, all of sand with a slight admixture of clay, were treated by us 
in this way. The few scattering sherds met with are of inferior ware, are not shell- 
tempered, and, where decorated at all, bear a cord-marked impression, with one 
exception, which has the small check-stamp. 
All bones in these mounds were badly decayed. There was one noticeable 
feature as to burials; skulls had been placed to the east of the bones they accom- 
panied, whether the burial was what was left of a skeleton or was of the bunched 
variety. 
Mound Number 1.—This mound, measuring 4 feet 6 inches high, and 29 feet 
across its base, had a core 10 feet in diameter dug from its center by us. An arrow- 
head of quartzite lay apart from bones. Nine inches from the surface, centrally in 
the mound, were a skull, two femurs, and a fragment of a small bone. 
Mound Number 2.—Height, 2 feet 8 inches; diameter, 24 feet across its circular 
base. Тһе diameter of the portion excavated was 10 feet. А skull lay 28 inches 
from the surface. At the same depth, but some distance away, were fragments of 
bone, probably human. Near the skull was a nest of pebbles evidently carefully 
selected, as each was nearly round and about the size of a small pea. Presumably 
they formed part of a rattle, the turtle-shell belonging to which had decayed away. 
With the pebbles were six small arrowheads of jasper, rather roughly made; a neat 
drill wrought from a jasper pebble, still showing the rough surface of the stone on 
its base; also eight pebbles and bits of pebbles. 
Mound Number 3.—Height, 5 feet 6 inches; diameter, 33 feet; diameter of 
portion excavated, 16 feet. Centrally in the mound, 2 feet down, was a skull with 
two phalanges nearby. Next came a space devoid of bones or artifacts, and then a 
pelvis and two femurs in line as if they belonged to a skeleton from which the ribs 
and vertebre had been taken or had disappeared through decay. Beside the skull 
was a considerable deposit, as follows: three “ celts,’ 10 inches, 7 inches, 3.79 
inches, in length, respectively, one of voleanic rock, two presented to the owner of 
the mound without identification; three cannon-bones of deer; four pebbles, each 
about the size of a child’s fist, three apparently used as smoothing-stones, one prob- 
ably as a hammer; a mass of what chemical analysis has shown to be glauconite, 
or green earth, which takes its color from iron in the ferrous state, presumably used 
as a paint; fragments of fresh-water shells; six small, barbless fish-hooks of bone, 
all more or less broken; five small arrowpoints, four of jasper, one of quartzite ; 
one bit of pottery ; 37 pebbles, bits of pebbles and small masses of stone, all jasper 
or quartzite; an unidentified object, perhaps a fossil; a foot-bone of a deer; a 
piercing implement of bone; four masses of red, or brick, clay ; a claw not affording 
features for positive identification; part of a jaw of a wildcat; an incisor of a 
beaver; a tooth of a woodchuck; a penis-bone of an otter; the foot-bones of a large 
35 JOURN. А. М. 8. PHILA., VOL. XIII. 
