HEYE— NORTH CAROLINA MOUNDS 



an old apple tree. Fifteen feet west of it lay the remains of a burial, 

 consisting of many human bones and a shell bead that had been 

 exposed by plowing. On the same site, but nearer the base of the 

 mound, a deposit of charred acorns and nuts was discovered, and in 

 several places masses of charcoal were seen. This superficial exami- 

 nation was made during a preliminary survey of the valley, when 

 the presence of growing crops made excavation impracticable. Dur- 

 ing our sojourn the owner of this mound informed us that several 

 human skeletons had been unearthed in plowing its surface. 



THE JAMES PLOTT MOUND 



The James Plott mound is of the conical type; it averaged sixty 

 feet in diameter and was thirteen feet in height. On the crest stood 

 the old apple tree, above referred to, thirty inches in diameter at the 

 base. The roots still held the earth in place, and thereby preserved 

 to some extent the height of the mound when the tree was planted. 

 The difference between this point and the present general summit of 

 the mound is about two feet (pi. n). 



The work of excavation was commenced on the southwestern side, 

 at a point forty-five feet from the center of the mound. Twelve inches 

 below the surface a mass of stones was found, the uppermost of which 

 were small river pebbles, but among them and underneath were heavy 

 slabs which evidently came from the cliffs on the opposite side of 

 Pigeon river. The owner of the mound stated that originally similar 

 stones surrounded the base of the mound, but that he had removed 

 many wagonloads of them. In a stratum of earth beneath this layer 

 of stones many potsherds were found. This stratum averaged a foot 

 in thickness and beneath it was undisturbed soil. Above the stones 

 was a layer of black loam that evidently had been brought from the 

 flats near the river, because no earth similar to it is found in the 

 immediate vicinity. Six and one-half feet from the point where the 

 layer of stones was first encountered the vertical section of a trench 

 put down from the surface showed the stratification illustrated in plate 

 ill, a. Further excavation revealed the fact that the layer of stones 

 commenced to dip in the center, and as the earth was removed toward 

 that point this tendency became more pronounced until the center 

 of the mound was reached. The stratification here is shown in plate 

 in, b. After passing the center of the mound, the stratum of stones in 

 the second half was found to be similar to that of the first half, and 

 gradually flattened out to the opposite margin of the mound where 

 it became straight. At no place there did the stone layer extend more 

 than two feet below the surface of the mound, hence it was shown 



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