574 CERTAIN MOUNDS ОҒ ARKANSAS AND ОҒ MISSISSIPPI. 
extent, into which fourteen trial-holes were dug by us, resulting in the finding, in 
two places, of many human bones, which, lying just below the surface, gave evi- 
dence of having been scattered by the plow. 
MOUNDS NEAR BELLE PRAIRIE LANDING AND BEECH GROVE LANDING, 
Yazoo COUNTY. 
Our agent reported to us the presence of low mounds near Belle Prairie Land- 
ing and Beech Grove Landing, which we did not visit owing to inability to obtain 
permission to investigate. 
MOUND NEAR PARKER’sS Bayou, HOLMES COUNTY. 
In a cultivated field, about 1.25 miles in a northerly direction from Parker’s 
Bayou, on property belonging to Mrs. Carrie W. James, of Yazoo City, adjacent to 
the barn-yard, is a mound 4 feet 7 inches in height and 64 feet across its irregularly 
circular base. Fourteen trial-holes gave no indication of human bones or of 
artifacts. 
We were informed by tenants on this property that the mound had been 
erected * by the old master" in comparatively recent times, for the harboring of 
cattle in high water. 
MOUNDS AT THE Fort PLACE, Yazoo COUNTY. 
On the Fort Place, the property of Mr. W. B. Ricks, of Canton, Miss., is a 
large mound with a house upon it, in full view from the river banks. As this 
mound, we were informed, had been altered in shape to accommodate the house, 
no measurements of it were taken by us, nor was any digging in the mound 
attempted. 
About 40 yards WNW. from the large mound, in a cultivated field, is a mound 
much spread by the plow, having at present a height of 3.8 feet and basal diame- 
ters of 108 feet and 66 feet. Seven trial-holes yielded nothing of interest. 
About 65 yards SSW. from the large mound, in the same field, and evidently 
much reduced in height and somewhat increased in diameter by cultivation, is a 
mound 3 feet 4 inches high and 62 by 70 feet in diameter. Six trial-holes were 
without positive result. 
A main road in front of the house has cut through two other mounds, leaving 
only remnants. These mounds, which evidently had been about the same size as 
the two in the field, are respectively 30 yards NNE. and 40 yards ESE. from the 
principal mound with the house upon it. 
We have in connection with these mounds, a rather interesting feature. Each 
of the four corners of the principal mound is directed toward one of the surround- 
ing mounds, perhaps indicating attention paid by the aborigines to the cardinal 
directions. The corner of the great mound, which is directed toward the mound 
ESE. of it, would be, in the winter time, about in the direction of the rising sun. 
