MEC a TT Жү 
ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 231 
and one in each corner, the corner ones extending 18 inches down through clay 
evidently without former disturbance, with one exception where 5 inches below 
the line of the base two masses of galena (lead sulphide), one somewhat larger 
than a clenched hand, one smaller, were found together. Both these masses 
were heavily coated with lead carbonate, the white-lead of commerce, used for 
the making of paint. In the great site at Moundville, Ala., we found this white- 
lead pigment on ceremonial palettes of stone in aboriginal graves. In the mound 
under description, these masses lay on undisturbed clay, but were surrounded 
by the dark material composing the base-line, and evidently were a deposit of 
some kind. 
The central hole put down from the base, 4 feet long by 20 inches wide, was 
carried through material that seemed to have been disturbed, perhaps by the 
planting of a post. Nothing was discovered in this hole. 
In the main excavation in the mound, which went through raw clay without 
indication of occupancy or of burial, were no fireplaces. The only artifacts 
found were oecasional chips of flint and fragmentary projectile points, perhaps 
introduced with the clay in the making of the mound. Five masses of galena, 
two together, also were come upon in the digging. The discovery of quantities 
of galena will be described in our account of Tennessee river mounds in Alabama. 
The reader is invited to consult the “ Handbook of American Indians" as to 
galena. 
MOUND NEAR SWAN POND LANDING, HARDIN County, TENNESSEE. 
Our agent visited a mound a short distance above Swan Pond Landing, on 
property of which Mr. Thomas MeKelvy is the owner. This mound, according 
to our agent, has a flat top, is about 7 feet in height and 70 feet square. There is 
a building on this mound and permission to dig was not obtained. 
MOUNDS NEAR THE MOUTH OF YELLOW CREEK, HARDIN COUNTY, TENNESSEE, 
About one-half mile due west from the mouth of Yellow creek is a mound in 
woods belonging to Messrs. Walker and Ross, of Savannah, Tenn. This mound, 
apparently intact at the time of our visit, was 32 feet across its circular base. 
Its height varied, the mound being on a slope. From the upper side the altitude 
was but 1 foot 4 inches, while measured from the lower side it was slightly more 
than 5 feet. 
An excavation 12 feet square was put down in the central part of the mound, 
showing it to be of raw, yellow clay and that there was no marked line of the 
base, compact clay of lighter shade than that of the mound being encountered, 
however, at a depth of 30 inches. This was dug out to an additional depth of 
one foot without showing modification and undoubtedly was the underlying clay 
of the mound. 
Five inches from the surface was a skeleton much decayed, indicating a burial 
closely flexed to the left. Ten inches deeper were fragments of two long-bones. 
