AND BLACK RIVERS, ARKANSAS. 353 
it was determined to dig out along the base а part of the mound 42 feet іп diame- 
ter, which seemed to represent its original size, the rest of the present diameter 
probably being due to cultivation. 
Burials, all badly decayed, were found in forty-two places, from just below the 
surface to a depth of 4.5 feet, one burial being in a pit extending 10 inches into 
yellow, undisturbed sand which lay under the dark sand of which the mound was 
composed. 
In many instances the form of interment was not apparent owing to the 
decayed condition of the bones; occasionally, however, the nature of the burial 
could be identified, and included the burial at full length on the back and the 
flexed burial. 
There were also, at the very base of the mound, some of the bones of a single 
skeleton, including the skull, in such arrangement that no form of burial other than 
the bunched variety was possible. The bunched burial was met with by us in this 
instance only on White and Black rivers. 
Four and one-half feet down was a deposit of calcined fragments of human 
bones, 12 inches by 8 inches and 2 inches in thickness. Placed vertically on this 
deposit was a vessel of earthenware. 
In another part of the mound were fragments of calcined human bones, not 
arranged in a mass but scattered. With this burial also, was an earthenware vessel. 
These were the only instances of cremation encountered by us along White and 
Black rivers. 
Sixty-one vessels of earthenware lay with the burials in this mound, almost 
invariably near the skulls, but in several cases in the neighborhood of the pelvis. 
The vessels had been placed singly, in pairs, and in one instance three together. 
These sixty-one vessels, all of medium size, with the exception of several 
diminutive ones which were evidently toys, and some of which were found with 
skeletons of children, are of inferior ware. Shell tempering is present in some in- 
stances, but the pounded shell is often unevenly distributed, and the firing of the 
clay must have been imperfectly done. Many of the vessels were crushed to frag- 
ments when found, and the majority of the remainder fell into bits on removal. 
In form the vessels, save in two instances where the cup is represented, are 
pots, bowls, and bottles, these last having in some cases short, wide necks, and in 
others long and narrow ones. 
With a single exception, that of a cup with two encircling, incised lines, no 
attempt at decoration is apparent on the body of any vessel. A number of pots 
and bowls have loop-handles; and a few have projecting animal heads so rudely 
modeled that they barely escape being classed as knobs. On such vessels are con- 
ventional tails extending from the sides opposite the heads. Three or four of the 
bowls have small, flat ears extending laterally; these ears, in the case of one vessel, 
are decorated with rude, parallel, incised lines. Two or three of the loop-handle 
essels have small, vertical projections on the sides not occupied by the handles. 
Each vessel, no matter how fragmentary its condition when found, is included in the enumera- 
tion, our object being to note what number originally had been placed in the mound by the aborigines. 
45 JOURN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XIV. 
