390 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
put down a hole 6 feet by 9 feet in this mound, which was of sandy clay. Twenty- 
eight inches down was a deposit of musselshells (Unio), which covered much of 
the base of our excavation, about 6 inches in thickness in the middle parts and 
tapering at the margin to about half that thickness. This deposit contained 
here and there nine masses of silicious rock, the largest being about the size of a 
human head. 
This shell deposit rested on a layer of dark soil which evidently represented 
the original surface, as beneath it was undisturbed ground. This deposit was 
carefully removed with a view of determining if burials lay immediately beneath 
or in grave-pits extending into the subsoil, but nothing was discovered. 
Beyond the deposit of shells, however, was a skeleton extended on the back, 
31 inches down, not in a grave, so far as could be determined, the burial having 
been placed, apparently, immediately on the original surface of the ground. 
Another skeleton lay 9 inches above, partly flexed on the right. The heads of 
these burials were directed toward exactly opposite points. The deeper burial 
apparently lay on the original surface, and the mound, in being piled above, 
had included the other burial, as no sign of a pit was discernible in connection 
with it. 
MOUND BELOW Ісос FERRY, HAMILTON COUNTY. 
About one mile below Igou Ferry, in a cultivated field, in sight from the 
river, on property belonging to Mrs. Mattie Igou, who lives upon it, is a mound 
7 feet 6 inches high as measured by us from the outside, and 52 feet in diameter 
of base. This mound, which has a circular base, was fairly symmetrical, showing 
no sign of cultivation or of previous digging. Numerous trees, one of consider- 
able size, were on the mound at the time of our visit. 
A central hole, 9 feet by 16 feet at the top and somewhat greater at the 
bottom, was put down. About 6 inches below the blunt apex of the mound, 
Burial No. 1 was reached, which lay beneath irregular slabs of stone in the 
following way: First came two slabs of silicious rock, side by side, 1 foot 8 inches 
by 10 inches by 3 inches thick, and 1 foot 10 inches by 1 foot by 6 inches in 
maximum thickness, respectively. Immediately beneath these masses was a 
slab of limestone 11 inches by 9 inches by 2 inches thick. All these slabs, of 
course, were of irregular outline. A few inches below the slabs were the remains 
of a young child having near the head a pot of inferior ware, 3 inches in height, 
with a margin four times scalloped and below each elevation a small knob. 
About the neck and on the chest of the skeleton was a profusion of shell beads of 
various sizes and shapes, the largest ones being barrel-shaped and about .5 inch 
in length. There were also discoidal beads and diminutive tubular ones, some 
only about .1 inch long. With these were a few, small, marine shells pierced 
for use as beads. 
Burials Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 were widely apart in the limits of the excavation at 
respective depths of 22, 38, 36, and 38 inches, and consisted of, respectively: 
the decaying remains of a skull; two femora in fragments; teeth and traces of a 
