576 CERTAIN MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS AND ОҒ MISSISSIPPI. 
and owing to its hard and tenacious character required the aid of a pick to remove. 
This Sot. and the restricted space in which the diggers were confined made the 
work a veritable task. 
Forty-seven burials were met with from just below the surface to a thin layer 
of dark material 9 feet down, on which were three fireplaces, one having fish-scales 
near it. 
This layer, on which were scattered bits of musselshells and fragments of 
bones of lower animals, was probably the original surface of the ground. On this 
layer had been deposited a number of burials, but no trace of human remains was 
found below it, and the ground seemed undisturbed. 
The human remains in this mound (with the exception of calcined fragments 
which, of course, were hardened by fire) were in the last stage of decay and with 
but two or three exceptions (which, strangely enough, came from near the base), 
could, even including the teeth, be readily reduced to dust between the thumb and 
finger. 
The form of twenty-six burials was undetermined by us. 
Certain burials will be considered in detail. 
Burial No. 1, 1 foot 8 inches down, was a skeleton of an adult, lying at full 
length on the back, the skull SSW. This skeleton, from the skull to the pelvis 
inclusive, had lain on a bed of fire and the bones were badly affected by the heat, 
which had burnt the adjacent clay to a red hue. 
Burial No. 2, 10 inches down, was an adult skeleton extended at length on the 
back, the head directed SE. This skeleton, from the upper part of the chest down 
to and including the feet, had lain on the same fire as skeleton No. 1, the legs of 
skeleton No. 2 crossing the chest of the other skeleton. 
Although such parts of both these skeletons as had been exposed to heat 
showed markedly the effects of fire, the bones remained entire and were not reduced 
to small calcined fragments, as is the case when cremation among the aborigines 
has been successfully carried out. 
Burial No. 5 consisted of the skeleton or of a large part of the skeleton of 
an adult, arranged in a bunch. Immediately above this bunch was a small layer 
of calcined fragments of bone which had belonged to a somewhat smaller skeleton 
than the one below it. 
The foregoing burials, which were all superficial, it will be noted, were a 
only ones bearing marks of fire that were met with by us in this mound. 
Burial No. 7 consisted of leg bones and a pelvis. We could not determine in 
this instance if the remainder of the skeleton had disappeared through decay or if 
no other bones had been interred. No trace of decayed bones was apparent, 
however. 
Burial No. 9 was the skeleton of a child, probably flexed and lying on the 
left side. 
Burial No. 11 was a bunch, though some of the related bones were attached 
when interred, as, for instance, а few of the lumbar vertebre and the pelvis. 
D 
