ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 293 
preliminary excavation. All described from now on were encountered while 
the mound was in process of demolition from the circumference of the base in- 
ward to the central excavation, a fact which should be borne in mind in connec- 
tion with the depths of burials recorded. 
No burial was encountered until digging had proceeded some distance in- 
ward. Near the margin of the base, however, a curious pit was found. This 
pit was clearly defined, extending 3 feet 5 inches into undisturbed, yellow clay. 
The length of the pit, 5 feet 10 inches, would have been suitable for a grave, 
but the width was only 10 inches. No bones or artifacts were present in this 
unusual excavation, though very careful search was made. 
Burial No. 17, 6 feet 4 inches down, under the slope, consisted of fragments 
of skull and traces of femora lying on the base of the mound. Where a shoulder 
would have been, had it not in all probability decayed away, was a mass of galena. 
Burial No. 21. In a grave extending below the base and traceable up into 
the mound, were remains of a ske'eton having a few discoidal beads of shell, 
much decayed, at the neck. 
Burial No. 22, the remains of the skeleton of a child, in a grave 3 feet 9 inches 
by 1 foot 4 inches and extending 1 foot into undisturbed soil below the base 
of the mound, which here was 6.5 feet from the surface. At the neck were a 
few decaying, discoidal beads of shell, and at the right thigh, sixteen small 
masses of galena. 
Burial No. 23, a grave extending below the base of the mound, holding traces 
of a skull and femora. Near the bones was a mass of galena, weighing more 
than ten pounds, the largest found at this place by us. 
Burial No. 26, a grave extending 1.5 foot below the base, containing the 
remains of a skeleton having near the head twenty-four small bits of galena. 
Burial No. 35, fragments of a skull, having the remains of a femur immediately 
beneath it, and some fragments of a large marine shell. 
Burial No. 40, the remains of the skeleton of a child, in a grave below the 
base. Nearby, in fragments, was a large marine shell (Cassis tuberosa) which, 
perhaps, had been a drinking-cup, and thirteen small masses of galena. 
Burial No. 41, 7.5 feet down, shown by fragments to have been extended 
on the back. At the head and at the feet was a mass of pure clay. 
Burial No. 44. Well in the body of the mound were the remains of a skull, 
near which were fragments of a large, marine univalve and five shells, some 
much decayed, which had been pierced for stringing, like beads. E | 
Now the members of our expedition, from long experience, are familiar with 
the small, marine shells (Marginella and Olivella, and the larger Oliva shell) 
often used, when pierced, by the aborigines, in place of beads, but in the case 
of these shells with the skull it was evident we had to do with a kind we had 
never seen in the mounds before. 
The shells were carefully labeled by the present writer, and after our return 
to the north were shown to Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, at our Academy of Natural Sciences 
