530 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON RED RIVER. 
With decaying fragments of ribs (all the bones of this skeleton were in bad 
condition) was a small arrowhead of flint, somewhat broken. 
BURIAL NuMBER 2. 
Near the NW. corner of the main excavation a pit was encountered. It was 
not possible to determine exactly where this pit began, since, as we have said, the 
soil of the upper few feet of the mound was moist and soft and had a homogeneous 
appearance. Not far below this material, however, the pit was clearly defined, the 
sides of it enclosing a broken, mixed, and granular material readily distinguishable 
in the digging. The downward course of the pit, moreover, was apparent where 
it cut through local layers in the mound, and was darker and more variegated. 
The pit continued down, cutting through the 8 inches of the dark layer mark- 
ing the base of the mound, and extending 2 feet 8 inches farther, so that, if it 
began at the surface, as no doubt it did, it had a depth of about 14 feet—a depth, 
we believe, previously unheard of in connection with aboriginal graves. From the 
line of the base down to where the pit ended, it ran through red clay, which, to a 
certain depth, was the underlying soil of the field. With this red clay the mottled 
material filling the grave-pit was in still more marked contrast than it was with the 
mixture of sand and clay composing the mound, so that the graves extending below 
the base of the mound were almost as readily distinguishable, in that part, as they 
would have been if they had been walled around with brick. 
The pit at the base was almost oblong—about 8 feet in length, 5 feet 10 inches 
at one end and 6 feet 6 inches at the other end—as may be seen by the plan which 
was drawn to scale on the spot. 
About centrally on the base lay, extended on the back, a skeleton of an adult, 
probably a male, the head directed SE. by 5., the face turned to the right side. The 
bones were decayed and crushed. About 6 inches from the skull lay an imperforate, 
undecorated shell disk about 1.25 inch in diameter. 
Near the forehead, parallel with the body, was a bead of shell, almost tubular, 
3.75 inches in length, .6 inch in diameter. 
At the neck were twenty-one pearls, from .12 to .4 inch in diameter, perforated 
for use as beads. With these was an imitation of a canine tooth of a large car- 
nivore, wrought in shell, perforated for suspension, which probably had served as a 
pendant with the pearls. 
Between the right shoulder and the face lay two shell disks, both undecorated 
and imperforate, each about 2 inches in diameter. 
At the right wrist were seven shell beads, globular and each about .75 inch in 
diameter. Near these was a pottery vessel crushed to fragments. 
At the inner side of the right tibia and parallel with it lay a handsome quartz 
crystal, about 7 inches in length and 1.5 inch in maximum diameter, the point of 
the crystal toward the knee of the skeleton. 
At the right ankle were nine beads of shell, each about .6 inch in diameter. 
Near these lay a water-bottle, badly crushed. 
