ANTIQUITIES OF THE OUACHITA VALLEY. 21 
As the mound is а refuge for stock in times of high water, it was not deemed 
advisable to destroy it, especially as two pecan trees on its summit were valued by 
the owner. 
Owing to the presence of these trees our investigation was restricted to a pit 
11 feet by 6 feet, carried down, with almost perpendicular walls, from the summit- 
plateau to a depth of 12 feet 6 inches, where undisturbed ground seemed to be 
reached. On this basal part were fragments of river shells and a number of scales 
belonging to a fish of the gar family. 
Human remains were encountered at five levels, respectively 3 feet 6 inches; 
4 feet 9 inches; 5 feet 7 inches; 6 feet; 7 feet 5 inches. 
The bones were mere moldering fragments, and skulls, eight in number, were 
identified in seven cases by traces of teeth alone. In the other instance a mastoid pro- 
cess and part of a lower jaw were distinguishable. 
No artifacts lay with the remains. 
A few arrow- and lancepoints, of chert, and 
one of quartzite were scattered in the clay, as 
were several hones of sandstone and а stopper- 
shaped pebble which may have been utilized by 
the aborigines. 
A few feet from this mound is a small аге: 
composed of black soil and fragments of mussel- 
shells, in which we found the base of a vessel, with 
nine feet encircling the margin (Fig. 4). (1 
Ето, 4.— Base of vessel, Booth Landing. 
пат, 5.3 inches.) 
MOUNDS NEAR Bic LAKE, CATAHOULA PARISH, La. 
Big Lake, a small sheet of water, and not part of a former course of the river 
(which sometimes in the South is called a “lake’’), is about one mile eastward 
from Pippin’s Landing, on property of Messrs. H. and C. Newman, of New Orleans. 
Southwest of the western end of the lake are a number of mounds, some small 
and some of moderate size. Some are rectangular in outline, and all are flat-topped 
and evidently domiciliary, A number had been dug into previous to our visit. 
These mounds were all investigated by us to some extent, trial-holes being 
sunk with a view of determining if cemeteries were present in the summit-plateaus. 
Nothing was found, the clay material of which the mounds were made being com- 
pact and of a raw yellow appearance, with no admixture of the organic matter which 
one expects where burials have taken place. 
DWELLING-SITES NEAR HARRELSON LANDING, CALDWELL PARISH, La. 
In a field, the property of Mr. C. M. Harrelson, at Harrelson Landing, who 
resides on the place, are three circular rises in the ground, which evidently had 
been used as dwelling-sites in aboriginal times. 
One of these (A), about 45 feet in diameter, had, through long cultivation, 
been plowed almost to the level of the surrounding ground. Bits of pottery and a 
