490 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



ments are abundant, such as arrow and spear points, knives, awls, axes, etc. 

 There are also vessels made of sandstone or other kinds of hard stones found 

 at these villages. At places the ruins of these old villages are covered up en- 

 tirely by soil to a considerable depth and can only be seen in the gulleys that 

 have been washed through them of recent date. 



Scattered over the country, always near the water, are single mounds which 

 seem to have been circular buildings. These mounds are from ten to thirty 

 feet in diameter, and seem to have been built of small stones and mud — at 

 least the stones are all small now, and all have the appearance of having been 

 burnt. Some of these mounds are three or four feet high, and where they 

 have been pretty well preserved have a circular depression at the top. 

 Whether this depression shows the entrance to the building to have been at 

 the top, or whether it is the natural position the material of a falling wall 

 would assume, is yet to be determined. The uses to which the houses, if 

 houses they were, were put can only be a matter of conjecture, and why the 

 stones composing them should all appear as if they had been burnt. The 

 stones used in their construction were from the immediate vicinity in which 

 they are located. Sometimes they are limestones and sometimes they are 

 sandstones, and at other times they are of both. The siliceous pebbles which 

 are often abundant in the vicinity of these mounds do not seem ever to have 

 been used in their construction. The mounds seem to have been constructed 

 on the surface of the ground without any excavation. Nor is there any evi- 

 dence of walls, but the material presents the same general appearance through- 

 out. In places I have seen these mounds where creeks had washed away 

 part of them leaving a good section exposed. No evidences have been found 

 in them that they were used for other purposes than that to which an ordi- 

 nary wigwam would be put. At the villages there is always to be found one 

 or more of these large mounds and a number of smaller ones. 



The material from which the flint implements are made is found in the 

 nodules of flint which occur in the Cretaceous and Carboniferous rocks of 

 this part of the State. At only one place did I find any metal instrument, 

 and that a single copper arrow point. In the northern part of the State I 

 have found no pottery of any kind, and no carving on stone, or pipes of any 

 kind. 



In several places I have found caches of flints. The holes were circular and 

 about eighteen inches deep, and the flints packed into them as closely as pos- 

 sible. The flints were all in partially completed condition, some more and 

 some less, but none complete. They were probably put into those places 

 to be taken up at some future time, but from some cause that time never 

 came. 



I do not remember to have seen anywhere east of the Pecos River any 



