ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 319 
MOUNDS NEAR Wipow’s CREEK, JACKSON COUNTY, ALABAMA. 
On the left side of the river, going up, about one mile above its junction 
with Widow’s creek, on the property of Mr. W. 8. Allen, of Bridgeport, Ala., 
are two mounds in a cultivated field near the river bank, less than 50 yards apart. 
MOUND А. 
Mound A, which may have been under cultivation in the past, though not 
in recent years, was turtle-shaped, its height from the outside being 6.5 feet, 
its diameters 75 feet and 45 feet. 
An excavation 12 feet square, sunk centrally to the base, which reached 
dark alluvial soil at a depth of 8 feet 4 inches, showed the mound to be composed 
of layers, some almost entirely of musselshells, some with a small proportion 
of earth mingled with shells, some having shells and material made up principally 
of ashes. 
Our excavation gave evidence also that thé height of the mound from the 
outside was misleading. The discrepancy was accounted for by the discovery 
that a considerable deposit of midden soil around the mound in the field had 
lessened the original altitude. 
'The base of the mound, on which was a fireplace, was carefully dug through 
in the hope of determining the presence of a pit or pits, but without success. 
Burial No. 1, closely flexed on the left, had a slab over the feet, legs, and one 
hand. The Бн was missing. Depth, 2 feet 8 inches. 
Burial No. 2, adolescent extended on the back, 5 feet down. At the right 
ear were three pearls, and two were at the left ear, all comparatively small, 
four flat like discoidal beads, one an oblate sphere, all pierced. At the right 
wrist was a beautiful pearl, oblate-spheroidal in shape, .5 inch in diameter, 
without patina, having a beautiful luster. The piercing of this fine pearl and the 
effect of time had deprived it of any value it might have had as a gem. At a 
site where musselshells were as abundantly used as they seem to have been at 
this place, pearls doubtless were numerous. 
Burial No. 3, at a depth of 3 feet 4 inches, six slabs and a fragment of stone 
had been irregularly placed. On these rested the skeleton of a child, above 
which, not always in contact but mingled with shells of the mound, had been 
piled other masses and slabs to almost within one foot of the surface. 
In another part of the mound stones piled as for a grave were discovered, 
much resembling those found with Burial No. 3, but no bones lay beneath or 
among them. It is possible that the remains of an infant with which they had 
been placed had decayed away. 
Burial No. 4. At a depth of 3 feet 8 inches were disturbed bones of an adult 
skeleton and scattered masses of rock, no cause for this being apparent. 
Burial No. 5, covering that part of the base of the mound which was reached 
by our excavation (supposing the alluvial soil without shells to have been the 
base, which seems likely), was a layer of ash material and shells. At one part 
