780 
mounds forming the celebrated Etowah group 
near Cartersville, Ga., a description of the 
form, structure, and contents of this tumulus 
may be of interest to those who have read Mr. 
Holmes’s article. 
As this group has been repeatedly described 
and figured (see Jones’s ‘ Antiquities of the 
southern Indians,’ chap. vi., pl. i.; and an 
article by Col. Whittlesey in the ‘ Smithsonian 
report’ for 1880, p. 624), it will be unneces- 
sary for me to add more in this regard than to 
correct one or two errors. 
The dimensions of the large mound marked 
A in the figure alluded to, as ascertained by 
the assistants of the Bureau of ethnology, are 
as follows: the slant height along the steepest 
slope, which I found by personal examination 
to be just about 45°, is eighty-five feet, giving 
a perpendicular height of sixty-one feet; the 
longer diameter of the level top a hundred 
and seventy-five feet, and the shorter a hun- 
dred and seventy, giving an area of about 
SCIENCE. 
hy la 
Lady Moda 
[Vou. IIL, No. 73. 
the original surface of the ground, sixteen feet. 
The form is more nearly that of a truncated 
cone than represented in the figures alluded to. 
The construction was found, by very thorough 
excavation, to be as follows: the entire sur- 
rounding slope (No. 4, fig. 1) was of hard, 
tough, red clay, which could not have been ob- 
tained nearer than half a mile; the cylindrical 
core, sixty feet in diameter, and extending down 
to the original surface of the ground, was com- 
posed of three horizontal layers, — the bottom 
layer (No. 1), ten feet thick, of rich, dark, and 
rather loose loam; the next (No. 2), four feet 
thick, of hard, beaten (or tramped) clay, so 
tough and hard that it was difficult to pene- 
trate it even with a pick; and the uppermost 
(No. 3), of sand and surface soil between one 
and two feet thick. A trench was dug from 
opposite sides to the central core; and, when 
the arrangement was ascertained, this central 
portion was carefully explored to the original 
surface of the ground. 
seven-tenths of an acre; the length of the 
roadway which winds up the southern slope is 
two hundred and one feet, and the width sixty- 
one feet. This roadway is described, in all the 
reports I have seen, as reaching the summit 
level. This is a mistake; as it stops short of 
the top by thirty feet slant height, or twenty 
feet perpendicular height. I can also state 
confidently that it never reached any farther 
up, as is apparent from a mere glance at the 
plan of construction. The remainder of the 
ascent, which is quite steep, was probably made 
by steps or ladders. 
The mound in which the articles mentioned 
were found by Mr. Rogan, who excavated it 
on behalf of the bureau, and a vertical section 
of which is given in fig. 1, is the smallest of 
the three, and the one marked C in Jones’s 
plate, and also in Col. Whittlesey’s fig. 2. 
The measurements, as ascertained by Mr. 
Rogan, are as follows: average diameter at 
the base, a hundred and twenty feet; diam- 
eter of the level top, sixty feet; height above 
Nothing was found in the layer of clay (No. 
2), except a rude clay pipe, some small shell 
beads, a piece of mica, and a chunkee stone. 
The burials were all in the lower layer (No. 
1), of dark, rich loam, and chiefly in stone 
cists or coffins of the usual box-shape, formed 
of stone slabs, and distributed horizontally, as 
shown in fig. 2, which is a plan of this lower 
bed. 
From Mr. Rogan’s field-notes I quote the 
following description of these graves, mode of 
burial, etc. : — 
Grave a, fig. 2.—A stone sepulchre two feet 
and a half wide, eight feet long, and two feet deep, 
formed by placing steatite slabs on edge at the sides 
and ends, and others across the top. The bottom 
consisted simply of earth hardened by fire. It con- 
tained the remains of a single skeleton, lying on its 
back, with the head east. ‘The frame was heavy, and 
about seven feet long. The head was resting on a 
thin copper plate, ornamented with figures of some 
kind; but the head was crushed and the plate in- 
jured by fallen slabs. 
remains of a skin of some kind; and under this, — 
coarse matting, probably of splitcane. ‘The skin and > 
Under the copper were the ~ 
