150 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, COAST OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



present at all in Florida, where the discoidal stone seems to be wanting, are 

 extremely rare. They are numerous along the Georgia coast. 1 We found them 

 in still greater numbers along the southernmost part of the coast of South Carolina. 

 It is interesting to know that just such discs are found as far north as Canada, Mr. 

 G. E. Laidlaw having met with great numbers in the ash-beds near Balsam lake, 

 Ontario. 2 These discs were doubtless used in some sort of game. Mr. Laidlaw 3 

 thinks it probably resembled our " billy-button," which he has seen among the Crees 

 and Salteaux of the Northwest British possessions. Mr. Stewart Culin 3 believes 

 if they were used in a game it was one resembling our " checkers," and cites Mr. 

 Cushing as to the existence of such a game among the Zuiiis, and Mr. Fewkes as 

 to a like game among the Mokis. 



Sherds, which were fairly numerous, were undecorated or cord-marked, save one 

 bearing a rude checked stamp. 



In this mound was an unusual structural feature. The mound rested upon 

 undisturbed grayish sand with a certain admixture of clay, and this stratum was 

 above yellowish brown clay with a slight admixture of sand. At the center of the 

 base of the mound a hole had been dug about 7 feet in diameter, extending down 5 

 feet 4 inches. In filling the pit, sand from the upper sand layer had been discarded, 

 the material used being clay from the layer below, with a certain admixture of bits 

 of charcoal and occasional oyster-shells. This mass of clay had somewhat the 

 appearance of an altar, but careful search showed neither bones, artifacts nor 

 evidence of the use of fire. 



Mounds near Hasell Point, Beaufort County (2). 



A mound about three-quarters of a mile in a northwesterly direction from Hasell 

 point, on the Colleton river, stood in woods on the edge of a cultivated field. Its 

 shape was that of the usual truncated cone; its height, 4 feet 7 inches; its diameter 

 of base, 34 feet. Shell deposits were nearby. A small trench had previously been 

 dug. Considerably over one-half was dug away by us with the permission of Mrs. 

 Sarah Hasell, of Hasell point. 



The mound was made of yellow sand with irregular layers of oyster-shells. 

 Nothing was found by us save a few sherds, undecorated or cord-marked. In the 

 sand thrown out by the previous digger were a few fragments of calcined bones, 

 probably belonging to a central deposit. 



In the field by the woods in which was the mound just described and a com- 

 paratively short distance from it was what the plow had spared of a mound, also 

 the property of Mrs. Hasell, 1 foot 4 inches in height and 32 feet across, at the time 



1 "Certain Aboriginal Mounds of the Georgia Coast," C B. Moore, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., 

 Vol. XI. 



2 "The Aboriginal Remains of Balsam lake, Ontario," "American Antiquarian," March, 1897, 

 page 71. 



3 In private letters. 



