582 CERTAIN MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS AND OF MISSISSIPPI. 
At the base of the cuttings of the two mounds through which the railroad 
passes, were quantities of fragments of pottery, some shell-tempered and some of 
the same sort of inferior, porous ware we had found farther down the river. 
MOUNDS NEAR SILENT SHADE LANDING, HOLMES County. 
Somewhat less than two miles in, along the Tchula road from Silent Shade 
Landing, in full view from the highway, are two mounds within a few feet of each 
other. 
Mound A, the northernmore, on property belonging to Mr. Robert E. Warfield, 
of Tchula, Miss., is 5 feet 7 inches high and 50 feet in diameter. 
An excavation was made by us, 16 feet by 10 feet, with perpendicular walls, 
extending through a dark line with light-colored clay below. This clay, which we 
considered to be the base, was somewhat deeper than the height of the mound 
measured from the outside. 
As usual, the outer part of the mound proved to be soft, the inner part hard 
and tenacious. 
Considering this mound to have been built for burial purposes (and we do not 
see how the reverse can be possible), one cannot fail to be impressed by the small 
number of interments in so large a central portion—only seven having been 
encountered. 
Four burials came from near the surface: two bunched burials; one probably 
a bunch; one too badly decayed to determine. 
Nineteen inches down was a deposit of calcined fragments of human bones, 
22 inches by 15 inches by 5 inches thick. On top of part of this deposit was a 
small, undecorated bowl of inferior ware, in fragments. 
Two skeletons at full length on the back, almost in a condition to crumble into 
dust, lay, side by side, 3 feet 8 inches down, the heads directed SW. 
Near the skull of one were two small, undecorated vessels of ordinary shape, 
and of inferior, porous ware, both in fragments. With these vessels were two 
hammer-stones. 
The second skeleton also had near the skull a vessel similar to the others. 
On the chest, in contact with the chin, was an ornament of wood, rotten 
through and through, which had been coated with sheet-copper, a few fragments of 
which still adhered. This ornament, circular, flat on one side and convex on the 
other, had a diameter of 2.5 inches, a thickness of .75 of an inch. 
Near the surface of the mound were two undecorated pots of crude ware, 
found in fragments, separately, apart from human remains. 
No earthenware from this mound showed tempering with shell. 
Mound В, on property of Mr. S. S. Hudson, of Vicksburg, Miss., has a basal 
diameter of 46 feet. Its height is 4 feet 10 inches. | 
Ап excavation with perpendicular walls, 10.5 feet by 10 feet, and 5 feet 7 
inches in depth, was sunk in the central part of the mound. Хо basal line was 
