18 ANTIQUITIES OF THE OUACHITA VALLEY. 
As the reader is aware, а large proportion of domiciliary mounds (to w hich t 
one in question evidently belongs) are without burials, though a few са "à rfi : 
burials in their summit-plateaus. Тһе latter proved to be the case in this mound, 
which was the only one in the group where the soil of the summit-plateau was soft, 
dark, and fitted for cultivation. SPESE | 
A great number of trial-holes sunk by us all over the summit of t ils mount 
showed a considerable area from the central to the south-eastern part of the plateau 
; ama „4 
Fig. 1.—Principal mound. Pritchard Landing, 
to be of material much darker than that of the remaining parts, and seven trial- 
holes in this dark soil at once exposed human remains. 
An irregular area somewhat elliptical in outline, with diameters of 48 and 53 
feet, which area proved to be in excess of the space containing burials, was dug 
throughout by us to a depth of from 1 to 2.5 feet where the dark soil came to an 
end. 
The bones, crumbling and in fragments, were in such a condition that deter- 
mination as to the method of burial was impossible, though in a few eases the burial 
at length was indicated. In many instances, however. bones lay scattered and ІП 
layers, remnants of long-bones lying under or alongside what was left of skulls. 
In all, parts of seventy-four skulls were unearthed (eleven in one pit). The 
remaining bones of the skeletons were far fewer than the complement called for 
