8 ANTIQUITIES OF THE OUACHITA VALLEY. 
That part of the Ouachita valley afterward explored by us was: Ouachita 
river up to а point about twenty miles above Camden, or 320 miles by water, ар- 
proximately ; Bayou Bartholomew to Portland, Arkansas, about 134 miles by water, 
its full navigable length; Boeuf river to Alto, about 100 miles by water; Little 
river to a point somewhat below Georgetown. 
Black river, also, which is about fifty miles in extent, by water, was carefully 
gone over by us, but nothing of interest was encountered in this overflow region, 
though considerable digging was done. 
At Jonesville (formerly known as Troyville), which is at the union of Ouachita 
and Little rivers, are, within the limits of the town, a number of mounds in vari- 
ous stages of erosion, which are described in Reports' of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology. 
In the lower Mississippi valley, of which the Ouachita valley is a part, but 
little archeological work has been done hitherto,? and but few objects from this 
region are in our museums. 
In the territory investigated by us aboriginal burials had been made excep- 
tionally in small mounds, occasionally in superficial parts of domiciliary mounds, 
and ordinarily in dwelling-sites. These dwelling-sites, as a rule, are but slightly 
above the general level of the surrounding ground, and only about one in ten of 
these sites contains burials or gives evidence of having done so. Nevertheless, it is 
on dwelling-sites that the student of the archeology of the Ouachita valley places 
his main reliance. 
Throughout the overflow land doubtless many dwelling-sites have washed 
away in some cases and have been covered by alluvial deposit in others. In higher 
ground many sites have disappeared, or have partly disappeared, through long- 
continued cultivation. 
On all sides we heard from the owners that their plantations had been under 
cultivation for long periods, some so much as seventy years; and doubtless others 
of these properties had been tilled for even a longer period. 
The soil of the Ouachita valley, containing a proportion of sand, is readily 
affected by wash of rain, and this wash is particularly destructive in the case of 
ground that has been loosened by plow and harrow. Each year the loss is appre cl- 
able, especially when, as is often the case, the fields lie on a decided slope. 
Hence, in the course of time, the soil accumulated through aboriginal occu- 
рапсу, with any accompanying burials, wholly or in part disappears. Many owners 
distinctly recall the finding by themselves of human bones and of artifacts years 
ago in fields which yielded nothing of special interest to our investigation. Often 
on these fields we saw still remaining fragments of human bones and of pottery, 
рал қ the layer of midden soil beneath was not sufficiently deep to contain 
urials. | 
' Twelfth Ann. Rep., p. 250, et seq. T i 
: ә р. 250, et seg. wentieth Ann. Rep., p. 103. 
па P fus we + paige Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States,” Twentieth Ann. Rep. Bur, 
