92 



CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



investigations of the writer, filled with the roots of former trees. The mound, 

 then, was absolutely virgin. In digging a post hole at the southern margin of the 

 mound. Singleton threw out a considerable number of bones. Near these lay a 

 gorget of shell scalloped around the edge, with three perforations and three concen- 

 tric circles on the face. (Fig. 109). 



Fig. 109. Shell gorget (full size). 



A careful search with trowels was made in the upper portion of the mound, 

 where alone were burials, during several days of the winter of 1892, and again in 

 the succeeding year. 



The composition of the mound is as follows : 



A— 1 ft. 



d m. 



Composed of a mixture of sand and loam filled with human 

 remains. With them were fragments of plain pottery. 

 B — 1 ft. 9 in. Composed of powdered shell, mainly Unios, and sand, with 

 fragments of plain pottery and broken bones of edible animals, 

 chiefiy the deer. 

 C — 1 ft. 6 in. Crushed Unios, some showing marks of fire, with plain pot- 

 tery and an implement of shell. 

 At a depth of 1 feet the artificial portion of the mound ended. Continued 

 excavation showed it to have been built upon a small eminence of white sand and 

 minute fragments of marine shell, dating their origin from the period of the sub- 

 mergence of the peninsula, and having no connection with the artificial portion of 

 the mound. It was apparent that numbers of burials had been made upon the 

 rounded extremity of a shell ridge which doubtless considerablj' antedated the super- 

 ficial portion of the mound. 



The second visit to Raulersons was exhaustive. Two preliminary excavations, 

 each 9 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet 3 inches deep to shell base showed quantities of 

 human bones, often broken and in the greatest disorder without the slightest anato- 

 mical connection. In the first excavation not a fragment of a tibia was met with, a 

 fact clearly indicating the very unequal distribution of the bones. In a second ex- 

 cavation, near a cervical vertebra were found 19 beads of glass. 



