1884.] 217 [Putnam. 



About forty feet from the centre, at the northern portion, we 

 discovered the first of the burial chambers, of which we after- 

 wards found a dozen in all. These chambers were made by plac- 

 ing logs, from five to six inches in diameter, on the clay which 

 forms the lowest layer of the mound, in such a way as to make en- 

 closures six to seven feet in length and from two to three in width 

 and about a foot in height. In these the body was placed, evi- 

 dently wrapped in garments, as indicated by the charred cloth 

 found in several of the chambers. With the bodies were placed 

 various objects, such as copper plates, ear ornaments, beads of 

 shell and copper, and, in one instance, long flint-points. In two 

 instances the skeletons were found extended at full length within 

 the chambers, the outlines of which could be traced by the cast or 

 imprint of the logs in the clay ; the logs having decayed, leaving 

 simply a dark dirt. On the breast of one of the skeletons was a 

 copper plate, or ornament of thin copper. The action of the cop- 

 per had preserved the structure of a finely woven piece of cloth, 

 found between the plate and the bones of the chest. In the other 

 chambers the bodies had been burnt on the spot, as conclusively 

 shown by the relative position of the pieces of burnt bones and the 

 fact that in two instances portions of the body had fallen beyond the 

 fire and escaped burning. It also became evident, as our explora- 

 tion progressed, that these chambers were covered by little mounds 

 of gravel and clay, and that in those where the burning had taken 

 place, the covering of earth was made before the body was con- 

 sumed, as shown by the small amount of ashes and the reduction 

 of the logs to charcoal in their position on the clay floor of the 

 chamber, which was burnt to a varying thickness, according to the 

 amount of fuel supplied. We also became convinced that the bur- 

 ials and cremations were not all made at the same time, and that 

 after all these little mounds had been made, earth was brought 

 from different places about and heaped over all. This was then 

 covered with a thin layer of gravel and surrounded b}^ stones, thus 

 forming a large mound as a monument to mark the spot. 



It is of interest to note that Squier and Davis, in 1840, dug two 

 pits in this mound. At the bottom of their pit A, which was just 

 south of the centre of the mound, they struck one of these burial 

 chambers. They state that the skeleton was partly burnt and that 

 it was enclosed in a framework of logs. With these burnt bones 

 they found a copper plate and a pipe carved out of stone. They 



