286 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
tivation. In addition to the 15 inches which the grave extended into undisturbed 
ground, there were 5 inches of midden soil above. 
MOUNDS ох HENRY ISLAND, MARSHALL COUNTY, ALABAMA. 
Henry Island, owned by Mr. Bryant Henry, of Guntersville, Ala., is about 
three miles in length. About half-way up the island is a mound we did not visit, 
said to have a large, flat top on which are three buildings, and to be about 10 
feet in height. 
At the head of Henry Island, overlooking the water, has been a mound, 
presumably quadrangular. with flat top, 10.5 feet in height. Apparently, 
however, more than two-thirds of this mound has been washed away. One 
diameter, the former length or breadth of the mound, is 100 feet. 
At the foot of this remnant, in a cultivated field, itself having long been 
plowed over, is a mound, roughly circular, about one foot in height, with a diame- 
ter of 45 feet. This mound evidently had been plowed away to a considerable 
extent. There is a history of stone graves discovered in it. 
Numerous trial-holes in this low mound resulted in the discovery of nine 
burials. The first seven burials, one of which was of an adolescent, lay five 
in flexed positions, two extended. None of these burials lay at a depth greater 
than slightly more than 4 feet. Тһе skeleton of the adolescent, better preserved 
than were the other burials, was 3 feet from the surface. 
One of the burials had a rude, undecorated pot with two loop-handles; another 
had, near the skull, a delicate, piercing implement of bone and the stem of an 
earthenware pipe. The presence of these two objects may have been adventi- 
tious, however. 
Burial No. 8. Immediately below the surface was a stone grave 6 feet 
8 inches by 3 feet, outside measurement. This grave, of the regular stone-box 
variety, was made of limestone slabs carefully arranged, the slabs having been 
set a number of inches into the ground below the base of the grave, which was 
neatly floored with slabs in contact, the small spaces between the larger ones 
having been filled with fragments of suitable size. A large, single slab was 
upright at the head, which was directed SE.; another, at the feet. 
The covering stones had in part fallen in, as shown in our illustration (Fig. 50), 
the exposed space at the head of the grave (which is to the reader's right) being 
caused by the slipping of a slab which had dropped upon the thorax and skull, 
crushing the cranium, especially the facial parts. From the top of the highest 
slab to the upper surface of the bones was a distance of 1.5 foot. 
Within the grave, whose inside measurements were 5 feet 10 inches by 2 
feet 2 inches, and 1 foot 7 inches deep, measuring from the top of the highest 
slab, was the skeleton of an adult male, extended on the back (Fig. 51). Un- 
fortunately, the slab at the foot of the grave has interfered with the view of 
the legs which, of course, were present. 
Following the eurve of the forehead, on which it rested, was an ornament 
