SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON RED RIVER. 593 
On the bottom of this pit lay two adult skeletons (Nos. 3 and 9) extended, but 
in reverse directions, one (No. 3) placed immediately above the other, the right 
foot resting on the left shoulder of the under one, the left foot over the skull. The 
left foot of the lower skeleton was under the right shoulder of the upper one, and 
the right foot lay under the cranium. The skeletons were not centrally placed in 
the pit, but lay somewhat diagonally, approaching the western side at the northern 
end and the eastern side at the southern end. 
All the burials at the Foster Place had been well provided with mortuary 
tributes. In addition to other objects the eleven burials there had with them no 
fewer than two hundred and forty-six vessels of earthenware and probably many 
more. That there were more vessels than the number given (which is the total 
of the score taken when the vessels, broken and whole, were removed from the 
graves) is certain, as from one confused mass of broken pottery counted as one 
vessel on removal several almost complete vessels afterward were put together 
under our directions. 
Out of all the great number of vessels found, but sixteen were removed 
unbroken, owing to the deplorable wreckage that had ensued in consequence of the 
method followed by the aborigines at this place in depositing the vessels. The 
receptacles as a rule, had not been arranged singly, or, if in a group, at some little 
distance apart, but had been heaped together, one above another and one against 
another, so that later, when the pit was filled, and later still when the ground 
settled, the vessels were crushed to bits into and against each other and remained 
in layers of intermingled fragments. In addition, this grinding together presumably 
was the cause of the state of disintegration into which parts of many of the vessels 
had passed. 
One of the great deposits, after having undergone the crushing process described, 
and, of course, having been greatly reduced in bulk, still had a height of 22 inches. 
The deposits of vessels, as a rule, were not immediately with the skeletons, but 
presumably often had been piled against the walls of the pits (in the corner per- 
haps), though generally they were connected with the burial through the presence 
of a few other vessels arranged much less closely between the deposit and the 
burial. It was among such vessels that the few entire ones obtained by us at the 
Foster Place were found. 
The vessels among themselves had been variously placed. Some contained 
other vessels; some were covered by others inverted, or by vessels imposed in an 
upright position; in several instances shell cups had been inverted over the necks 
of bottles—all of which could be distinguished as the shattered vessels lay in the 
ground prior to removal. | 
In a few of the vessels were badly decayed mussel-shells, spoons, placed singly. 
In a few were decaying bones of small fish and of the gray squirrel (Serurus caro- 
linensis) which Professor Lucas has determined for us. Bones of this animal also 
were found in five or six instances lying near burials, though not enclosed in vessels. 
In the deep pit in the mound (Burials Nos. 3 and 9) were bones of the Virginia 
deer which presumably had been placed with the dead, contained in meat. 
75 JOURN. A. N. 8. РНША., VOL. XIV. 
