213 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [b^l. 118 



row of water-worn stones. Over this bed was a layer of clay 1 foot in thick- 

 ness; the remainder of the mound was composed of dark loam like the sur- 

 rounding soil. 32 



Clearly the mound was not a burial mound. The opinion is ven- 

 tured that the "large fire bed * * * consisting of a layer of 

 burned clay" was a typical fire basin on the center of the floor of a 

 town house; just such a basin as is shown in plate 100, Site No. 17. 

 The dark loam above the original surface of the ground was the 

 earth which was once on the roof of the town house, which had been 

 gathered from the village site. 



Of Mound No. 3, also at Chilhowey, Thomas reports : 



Mound No. 3 stood on the first bottom, in a beautiful level meadow, about 

 250 feet from the river. Its form was an ellipse, measuring 150 by 122 feet, 

 the longer axis being east and west; height 12 feet, but considerably reduced 

 by the plow. A thorough excavation showed its composition, mode of con- 

 struction, and contents to be as follows : The top portion, to a depth of 5 feet 

 (except a circular space in the center), consisted of dark, sandy soil, mixed 

 with pieces of broken pottery, flint chippings, and charcoal. This layer, which 

 was beneath the slight covering of recent vegetable mold, did not extend down 

 the curve of the mound toward the base, but was horizontal on the under side. 

 * * * Immediately below this was a horizontal layer of charcoal, 4 to 6 

 inches thick, extending horizontally over nearly the entire area of the mound 

 at this height, except where interrupted at the center by the conical mass. 

 The coals composing this layer were of cane and small boughs and very closely 

 packed. The earth next under it was very hard for a depth of several inches. 

 From this layer down to the natural surface of the ground, the mound was 

 composed of dark earth similar to that in the upper layer, and in this part 

 were found all the skeletons hereafter mentioned, with the exception of No. 34:.** 



This suggested that the top portion of the mound, 5 feet thick, 

 was composed of earth gathered up from the surface of the village 

 which contained "broken pottery, flint chips, and charcoal." Ob- 

 viously this earth had once been on the roof of a town house erected 

 here and apparently the bottom of this layer was horizontal, as it 

 rested on the town-house floor when the structure collapsed. The 

 charcoal layer next below was surely a burned and fallen town 

 house. The layer of cane found charred was the remains of the 

 usual cane thatching and the layer of earth under it, characterized 

 as very hard for several inches, was surely the old town-house floor. 



Since all this stratification was found well up in the mound, the 

 opinion is ventured that these remnants described represent a sec- 

 ondary structure here, the primary one having been on the original 

 surface at the base of the mound. The body of black soil in which 

 the burials were found seems certainly to have been the roof earth 

 of the primary structure. It is not surprising that if there had 

 been evidence of an earlier and primary structure it should have 



a 2 Thomas, 1894, p. 368. 

 s 3 Ibid., pp. 369-370. 



