212 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
the ease of stone graves exactly to determine the height, outside measurement, 
since the depth to which the various slabs penetrate the ground is irregular and 
not determinable until the grave is demolished. In the case of inside measure- 
ment, of course, one has the floor from which to determine the height.) Seven 
inches below the top was the skeleton of an infant, whose bones, though not well 
Fig. 14.—Burial No. 9. Stone box-grave of an infant, 2 feet,1 inch by 1 foot 4 inches, over all. 
Swallow Bluff Island, Tenn. 
preserved, were in better condition than one would expect them to be, and this 
applied to all skeletons of infants and of children found at this place. Presum- 
ably lime from the slabs above them had acted as a preservative. 
Burial No. 10. The supporting slabs of this stone grave had not been firmly 
set, and having assumed an outward slant, had permitted the covering slabs to 
fall into the grave, which under these conditions, was 5 feet 7 inches long by 
2 feet 7 inches wide, its top being just below the surface. This grave, which was 
in contact with Burial No. 12, at right angles to it, contained a skeleton closely 
flexed on the right, having a fragment of a thick cooking pot of earthenware, 
