528 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON RED RIVER. 
excess of 11 feet. It is 78 feet across its irregularly circular base; its summit- 
plateau, also circular, is 32 feet in diameter. This mound had the appearance of 
having been erected for some purpose other than domiciliary. About centrally in 
the summit-plateau an excavation was made having dimensions as follows: 12 feet 
at the northern end, 15 feet at the southern end, 16 feet at the eastern and western 
sides, which extended about N. and S. The excavation was carried to a depth of 
10 feet 10 inches, where it came upon a layer of soil 8 inches in depth, approxi- 
mately. This layer was black and had every appearance of having been the surface 
of the ground prior to the building of the mound. Evidence of disturbance found 
in this layer led to the discovery of a remarkable, central pit under the mound, 
which will be described in due course. 
In addition to the excavation referred to and to the complete investigation of 
the great pit, shafts were cut from the sides of the excavation into the remainder 
of that part of the mound which lay beneath the summit-plateau, and these shafts, 
in some cases, came upon pits running down to graves, some in the mound proper, 
and some below it, all of which were carefully explored. 
The mound was composed of a mixture of clay and sand, the clay largely pre- 
dominating. The material varied considerably in color and many local layers were 
present. Altogether the mound was an ideal one for the discovery and delimitation 
of pits, which often are difficult to determine in mounds of homogeneous material. 
Incidentally it may be said that after excavating the upper 2.5 to 3 feet, where 
the earth was moist and fairly soft, the digging was through material so dry and 
hard that picks were needed throughout and the work was slow and difficult. The 
entire excavation was filled at the close of our work, leaving the mound as useful 
a place of refuge as we found it. 
BURIAL NUMBER 1. 
At the NE. corner of the excavation (see plan, Fig. 24), at a depth of 6 feet 
4 inches to the upper part of the burial, was the skeleton of an adult, extended on 
the back. The skull, whose direction, had it been present, would have been N. by 
E., was missing. This burial, doubtless like all the others in the mound or below 
it, lay at the bottom of a pit, but as the burial was in the main excavation and was 
dug down upon by those engaged in the general digging, it was found before the 
limits of the pit were recognized. 
At the right shoulder were two bottles in fragments. Over the right elbow 
was a shell drinking-cup, much decayed and badly broken. Outside the right elbow 
and the right forearm respectively, were two pipes of earthenware, in fragments, 
from which mouth-pieces were absent. These pipes, which lay in line, the stems 
directed toward where the skull would have been; are of an interesting type, to 
which belong all the numerous earthenware pipes found in this mound, with one 
exception. As this type will be fully described and figured later in this account, it 
will suffice to say here that the bowl and stem are one piece, and that the length 
ranges between 5.5 inches and 22.6 inches. 
