﻿The Deer creek Mound. 



197 



The work of excavation for the first six feet was quite easy. The earth 

 was soft, easily crumbled, and was readily thrown out with a spade alone. 

 Two feet from the surface we reached some human remains in a very poor 

 state of preservation. Some bones of the feet, the upper ends of the 

 tibia and fibula, and lower end of the femur, were all recognized, but crum- 

 bled away very soon. The other parts of the skeleton were not recog- 

 nized, and either had never been buried here, or had so far disintegrated 

 as to have escaped observation. 



At the depth of six feet other human remains were found so far disintegrated 

 as to be identified only by a portion of the temporal bone of the skull. 

 Between these two remains, at the depth of about five feet, an angular piece 

 of porphyry, polished on one side, and evidently a piece from a broken celt 

 or ax, was found. 



The loose character of the earth already alluded to began to change on one 

 side of the shaft at the depth of five feet, while on other side it continued to 

 the depth of six feet, where the human remains were found. The earth 

 had been a yellowish clay, similar to that of the fields about the mound, 

 and contained here and there remnants of charred wood and ashes, in very 

 small fragments. This presence of small bits of charcoal and minute 

 quantities of ashes was noted throughout the shaft, at all depths. No 

 reddened clay, baked or partly baked, was to be found at all, either near 

 or apart from these evidences of fire. The loose character of the soil be- 

 gan to change at the depth of five feet, and at the depth of six extended 

 throughout the area of the shaft. The clayey nature was unaltered, but 

 the layers were very hard and compact, and the stratification was more 

 distinctly visible. The spade was now completely useless. A pick was 

 necessary, and was found necessary throughout the future digging of the 

 shaft. The clay soil seemed quite dry, and very hard ; so that progress 

 from that point was slow, tedious, and laborious. A hollow sound was 

 also quite perceptible in the process of picking, and was remarked and 

 speculated upon for some time. At the depth of ten feet another layer of 

 soil was reached underlying what has been already described. It was 

 darker in color, and seemed to be a mixture of the soils of the bluff and 

 valley. In this layer, at the depth of a twelve and one-half feet, a ground- 

 hog hole was reached, and contained some of the bones of that animal, 

 with others which were not identified. This was rather an astonishing 

 depth for that animal to borrow, but no doubt is accounted for by the dry 

 condition of the earth, and the ease with which the earth coming from the 

 hole was disposed of, down the side of the mound. 



At the depth of 15 feet, this layer of mixed earths ended, and one about 



