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ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 417 
inches above the base-line of the mound, and probably was what was left when 
the pit was filled. Over this little mound, to the height of about a foot, was 
dark clay resembling that found on the surrounding field. This clay probably 
had been gathered from the level ground and piled above the small mound as a 
nucleus for the greater one. Above this dark clay was a deposit of thirty or 
forty musselshells, much decayed. 
Although great care was exercised in the removal of the contents of the pit, 
no trace of human remains was discovered. If the pit had served as a place of 
burial, the remains that had been interred in it had decayed away. Presumably 
the pit below the base of the mound, into which water probably could percolate 
from the general level of the field, would contain more moisture than would 
lower parts of the mound above it. 
MOUND NEAR CAVE CREEK, ROANE COUNTY. 
A mound about one-quarter mile due N. from the mouth of Cave creek, in a 
cultivated field, on property of Mr. Robert Dowdy, 4 feet in height and 40 feet 
in diameter (estimated). Permission not granted. 
MOUND on THE E. E. BLAIR PLACE, LOUDON COUNTY. 
About one-half mile in from the river, on the property of Mr. E. E. Blair, 
living in the vicinity, in a cultivated field, is part of a mound now nearly plowed 
away. We did not consider this remnant worthy of investigation. 
MOUND ох THE №. W. BLAIR PLACE, LOUDON COUNTY. 
On the property of Mr. W. W. Blair, who lives upon it, about one mile below 
the town of Loudon but on the opposite side of the river, is a mound one-half 
mile from the landing in a cultivated field and in view from the road. The mound 
4 feet in height and 45 feet in diameter of base, which we were told had been 
plowed over for years, showed no evidence of previous digging, though the 
presence of musselshells upon it, while none are on the surrounding field, indicated 
that digging had been done or that parts of the mound had been plowed away. 
Later an excavation 12 feet square showed that a trench about 4 feet wide 
had been dug in from the western side of the mound, and, extending below its 
base, had reached its central part. Evidently this trench had been filled in 
during the cultivation of the mound. 
Human remains, all very badly decayed, were encountered as follows: frag- 
ments of bones disturbed by the plow; a skull 10 inches down; remains of a 
skeleton at a depth of 14 inches, which apparently had been partly flexed to the 
left; remains of bones indicating a burial partly flexed to the right, 28 inches 
deep; remnants of the skeleton of a child, 3 feet 8 inches below the surface; 
fragments of bone in the former digging and other fragments in the mound near 
the trench, 3 feet 10 inches deep. 
43 JOURN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XVI. 
