192 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
Apparently the graves had first been dug and then enclosed interiorly with 
slabs. "Then, perhaps to support the slabs additionally, the grave was filled in 
part with soil, after which the slabs for the floor were placed in position in the 
cases where they were used. For example, in one case, a side slab nearly 20 inches 
in height, belonged to a grave about 9 inches in depth, inside measurement. АП 
the graves, however, did not show so marked a difference between the height of 
the slabs at the sides and the depth of the grave. 
The slabs used for flooring were from one to two inches in thickness; therefore, 
as there was usually a space under the floor of the graves, enclosed by the side 
and end slabs, it occurred to us that possibly burials or artifacts might have been 
placed in these spaces also. Consequently all such were dug out with a trowel, 
with the utmost care, without, however, finding bones or artifacts with the excep- 
tionof а single fragment of pottery, which probably got in accidentally with the soil. 
As the reader perhaps is not familiar with the minutis of stone graves, а 
description of some from this place will be given in detail. The slabs are of shale, 
probably from the hillside a few yards distant. All graves had become filled 
through percolation of the soil. 
Burial No. 4, extending ENE. and WSW. The top, in two layers, consider- 
ably overlapped the sides of the grave. The upper thickness of the top was 
composed of four slabs; the under layer, of five slabs and a fragment probably 
used as a stop-gap. One side had three slabs and a fragment, while the other side 
had but two slabs. The floor, about eight inches of which was uncovered at one 
end, was made up of five slabs. One upright end of the grave was a single slab; 
two narrow ones had been placed at the other end. The inside measurements of 
this grave were: length, 2 feet 10 inches; width, 1 foot 5 inches. The depth was 
4.5 inches, though one of the side slabs had a height of 14 inches. 
Burial No. 7, placed E. and W., seemed undisturbed. The top was made up 
of five slabs and one small fragment in a single layer. At one side were three 
slabs and five fragments, a single thickness; the other side, in two layers, was 
made up of eight slabs and two fragments. "The head of the grave, in double 
thickness, had three slabs. The foot, also double, was composed of three slabs 
and a fragment. The floor was paved with six slabs and two small bits of stone. 
This grave, 3 feet 8 inches by 11 inches, had a depth of 6 inches, all inside measure- 
ments. The only human remains encountered consisted of the crown of a child’s 
molar tooth, in the western end of the grave. 
In the two burials described numbers of small slabs were used in enclosing 
the graves, but sometimes large slabs were employed. One of the largest graves 
found at this place had but two slabs to complete its entire length. 
The foregoing was written after a visit to the T. J. Gray Place on our way 
up the river. On the way down we made further investigation there in the hope 
of finding a stone grave or graves symmetrical and complete to a degree to make 
illustration паны, which we did not consider we had done at the time of our 
first visit. 
niente pe mri 
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