276 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
a sprinkling of shells over most of its surface, and a number of slight rises near 
the water, on which were more shells than elsewhere in the field. Artifacts 
were singularly few on the ground, almost nothing being found other than a 
few small fragments of pottery, one of which had a coating of red pigment. 
Considerable digging at this place yielded neither burial nor artifact. 
DWELLING-SITE NEAR САТАСО CREEK, MORGAN County, ALABAMA. 
On the lower side of the mouth of Cataco Creek, known also as Tate Creek, 
are a dwelling-site and an aboriginal cemetery of importance, according to our 
agent who visited them, which are under the management of Mr. J. W. Dunaway, 
of Sommerville, Ala. Permission refused. 
MOUNDS ON THE SLAUGHTER PLACE, MORGAN County, ALABAMA. 
On the property of Mr. Н. B. Slaughter, of Chicago, Ill., of which Mr. John 
Millow, who lives on the place, is manager, in a cultivated field were two mounds 
but a few feet apart, about one-quarter mile SW. from the landing. These 
mounds, blunt cones and symmetrical, were on land that had lately been cleared 
and were covered with the stumps of large trees. Evidently with the exception 
of a shallow hole in the top of the larger mound, they had not been dug into 
prior to our visit. Both mounds were of dark clay, of rather raw appearance, 
without admixture of midden debris. 
MOUND A. 
Mound A, 7 feet 10 inches in height when measured from the outside, and 
50 feet in diameter of base, was dug centrally by us to the extent of an excavation 
16 feet square which showed the base of red clay, very distinct from the clay 
of the mound, to be 7 feet 2 inches from the summit. 
Two feet down was a deposit of pure, gray clay differing entirely from that 
of the mound, 4 feet long by 16 inches wide and 2 to 3 inches in thickness. At 
one end of this were grouped together twenty-five masses of galena (lead sul- 
phide), the largest 2.5 inches by 1.5 inch by 1.25 inch. Beside these lay a copper 
celt 4.4 inches in length and 2.5 inches across the blade. Most careful search 
for traces of bones was made in connection with this deposit, but not even crowns 
of teeth were discovered, though without doubt a burial had been there. 
In the wall of the excavation, 54 inches down, together, were a mass of 
galena weighing fourteen pounds and an interesting celt of copper, 4.4 inches 
in length and 2.5 inches in maximum width, flat on one side and convex on the 
other. If traces of bones were with these objects not any were noticed in the 
disturbance, the lead and the copper having been dislodged by a blow of a pick 
before their presence in the wall was known. However, careful investigation 
showed that no fragments of bone other than possibly very small ones accom- 
panied them. 
