ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 395 
This island, as to which there is a report respecting the finding of a stone 
image, has an added interest as being the starting point of a great chain of groups 
of comparatively low, conical mounds extending up Tennessee river to Lenoir 
City, a distance of 101 miles by water, as we have stated in the Introduction. 
At the extreme upper end of the island, and in sight from most of it, is a 
mound (A) 22.5 feet in height, which probably has been square or nearly so 
as to its basal dimensions, but at present, through wash in periods of high water, 
its outline is irregular. Its basal diameter is 136 feet, 58 feet of which are 
under the summit-plateau, which is flat, wooded, including an oak-tree of great 
age, and gives no indication of ever having been under cultivation. 
At various distances apart, extending down the island, not in line, are three 
mounds, B, C, and D, while near together, toward the lower end of the island, 
are two mounds, E and F. "There are also scattered over the island various 
humps and rises and parts of mounds that have been mostly plowed away. 
'The more important of these mounds have dimensions as follows: 
B, elliptieal; 10 feet 3 inches in height, 63 feet by 48 feet in diameter. 
C, circular; height, 8 feet 2 inches; diameter, 48 feet. 
D, circular; height 9 feet 2 inches; diameter, 45 feet. 
E, circular; height, 5 feet 7 inches; diameter, 30 feet. 
F, circular; height, 9 feet 10 inches; diameter, 54 feet. 
As the owners of the island take great interest in archeology, and desire, so 
far as possible, to preserve intact the mounds now on their island, none of those 
herein particularly described has been plowed over or dug into to any appreciable 
extent, excepting, of course, the one (E) investigated by us. 
Mounds E and F were kindly placed at our disposal, but as we doubted our 
ability to restore the larger mound to its original condition in the time at our 
command (the prevailing low water of the river having been a great source of 
delay to us), we decided to devote our attention to Mound E exclusively. 
To avoid disturbing trees, an excavation 10 feet long by about 6 feet wide 
was made somewhat away from the center. The mound was composed of 
sandy clay of a brown shade. Thirty inches down a fragment of decaying bone 
about one inch in length was encountered. Other than this fragment, no bones 
were discovered in the mound, nor was any fireplace or midden-debris found 
in the digging. 
At a depth of 5 feet 10 inches an indistinct basal line was discovered, beneath 
which was undisturbed, yellow clay. 
Not central in the excavation, but nearly so as to the base of the mound, 
a pit was discovered, 3 feet by 3 feet 4 inches, extending one foot into the yellow 
clay and filled with the brown soil of the mound. How far this pit extended 
? In the 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 405, this mound is given 
as 35 feet in height, or about 12 feet more than the correct measurement. We would not refer to this 
error, which is very likely typographical, were it not that we are on record in this report as saying 
that the mound at Florence, Ala., is 42 feet in height, no other mound on the river approaching such 
a figure. 
