CERTAIN MOUNDS ОЕ ARKANSAS AND OF MISSISSIPPI. 575 
MOUND NEAR ENTRANCE оғ TCHULA LAKE, HOLMES County. 
About 500 yards W. by N. from the landing on Honey island, at the mouth of 
Tchula lake," in a cultivated field on property of Mr. Alfred Key, living nearby, is 
a mound 3 feet 8 inches high and 80 feet by 60 feet in diameter of base. 
Thirteen trial-holes yielded neither bones nor artifacts, but in several cases 
they exposed deposits of musselshells which were too fragmentary for identification. 
In the field in which the mound was situated were many bits of musselshells 
and other debris, denoting the former presence of aboriginal population. 
From the surface came a fragment of an earthenware vessel, seemingly a plat- 
ter, the inner face of which bears a decoration consisting of a band of bright red 
paint with alternate bands at right angles, showing red paint and the yellow of the 
ware. The pigment has been determined by Dr. H. F. Keller to be red oxide of 
iron. 
MOUND ох TCHULA LAKE, HOLMES County. 
On the W. bank of Tchula lake, about three miles from its mouth, on property 
of Messrs. Wise Brothers, of Yazoo City, is a symmetrical mound 7.5 feet in height 
and 55 feet across its circular base. Three trial-holes of unusually large size were 
put down, this number being all the top of the mound would accommodate, the 
destruction of the sides not being desirable. The clay from which this mound was 
made was dry and hard, necessitating the use of a pick. 
About 1 foot down were a few fragments of human bones; and 3 feet from the 
surface were bits of earthenware representing an entire pot, or a large part of one, 
with decoration resembling the impress of finger-nails. 
MOUNDS AT TEE PEASTER PLACE, HOLMES COUNTY. 
On the Peaster Place, about 4 miles up, on the western side of Tchula lake, 
on property belonging to Mr. R. L. Peaster, of Thornton, Miss., are four aboriginal 
mounds. 
Mound A, a symmetrical mound in sight of the bank of the old river, about 
150 yards in an ESE. course from the landing, has a height of 9 feet 4 inches; a 
diameter at base of 58 feet. 
A hole with perpendicular sides, 18 feet 6 inches long and 8 feet wide, was 
put down from the top of the mound. This excavation was 10 feet 6 inches deep 
in the middle, 10 feet deep at one end, and 9 feet in depth at the other end, which 
was under a sloping part of the mound, the excavation including more than the 
summit plateau. 
The outer part of the mound consisted of a layer of loamy material, dark with 
admixture of organic matter, from 2 feet to 2.5 feet in thickness. Below this was 
which continued until the base of the mound was reached, 
a mixture—mainly clay 
(Іп many parts of the South what remains of the former course of a river is called a lake. 
Tchula lake was part of the Yazoo river in former times. 
