158 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, COAST OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Just beneath the surface was a pot of about 8 inches diameter, the clay of 

 which was so softened by moisture that it crumbled into pieces. 



For some reason unknown to us it became the purpose of the aborigines to 

 enclose their wall within a mound; and this the}' did apparently in the following- 

 manner : First they filled in the enclosure with a mass of shells (mainly of the 

 oyster but containing those of the marine mussel, of the Littorina irrorata and 

 doubtless of other shell fish), and midden debris (B) to about the height of the wall 

 (A) allowing the deposit of shells (C) to continue a number of feet in a gradual slope 

 beyond the wall, as may be seen by consulting the cross section (Fig. 6), taken about 

 midway along the southern side of the enclosure. This shell deposit outside the 



." Wginfeet. / 7 

 Fig 6. — Cross-section of part of mound. Little island, S. C. 



wall extended a distances of about 8 feet, measured horizontally. The oyster-shells 

 were not a deposit made by occupation, since they lay loosely together and were 

 neither crushed nor tightly packed, and single calcined oyster-shells from fire-places 

 in shell heaps at a distance were scattered among them. Throughout the entire 

 deposit we noticed but one fire-place, a small one, and this was unquestionably made 

 during the filling in of the shells. From these facts we know that the oyster-shells 

 had been carried to the enclosure from some dwelling site l to form the initial stage 

 in the construction of the mound. 



1 For data as to shell heaps in this country the reader is referred to Professor Jeffries Wyman's 

 Memoir "Fresh Water Shell Mounds of the St. Johns river, Florida" and "Certain Shell Heaps of 

 the St. Johns River, Florida, Hitherto Unexplored," Clarence B. Moore, "American Naturalist," Nov., 

 1892 ; Jan., 1893 ; Feb., 1893 ; July, 1893 ; Aug., 1893 ; Jan., 1894 ; July, 1894. 



