﻿The Deerereek Mound. 



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and beveled to an edge, which, in some of them, is quite sharp. These 

 points of similarity suggest that it may have been a tribal distinction. Dr. 

 Hill, who, for nearly forty years unceasingly collected in this vicinity, told 

 me that he had found that certain areas (approximately made) furnished 

 almost invariably arrow-points of a peculiar form of barbing. This obser- 

 vation of Dr. Hill refers to the surface relics ; yet, in conjunction with the 

 fact just noted, is very interesting in this connection. The material of 

 which these points are composed is flint. The largest is of a very beauti- 

 ful milky, bluish-white color. These are usually called arrow-points. 

 From their size and weight it has lately been asserted that they are too 

 large and heavy for arrows, and that they must have been spear-heads. 

 This view for the larger ones seems reasonable, and they probably once 

 furnished the ends to spears. 



Beads. — The sea-shell beads, which were perforated at their ends and 

 formerly strung on strings, are (Marginella florida) — shells found along the 

 shores of the Gulf of Mexico. They are very small — about a half inch 

 long, and had, when first taken out, a polished surface and peculiar ivory 

 yellow color. They must have formed tasteful ornaments as bracelets. 



Wampum. — The long string of beads pendant from about the neck, was of 

 the kind known as wampum. They were smallest near the back of the neck, and 

 progressively increased in size until they reached the centre in front, where 

 they met in quite a large one. They are composed of carbonate of lime, 

 and are made from the conch-shell, though they are now much altered by 

 age, so that the structure is detected with difficulty, and only after patient 

 and careful investigation. There may be some of the smaller ones, which 

 were made from the vertebrae of reptiles, but all the larger are from shells. 

 A few of these beads of wampum show, in the drilled holes of their centre, 

 the substance upon which they were strung, and the holes themselves do 

 not bear testimony to any high degree of skill in drilling. They have 

 been apparently strung upon a twisted string of some woody fibre, a small 

 portion of which has been infiltrated by the lime of the disintegrating 

 wampum, and thus preserved. Two beads are cemented together by lime, 

 and when they were first taken out, numbers were found cemented together 

 in rows of six or eight. 



The octagonal flat piece of sandstone, already spoken of as found in the 

 loose dirt above the vault, presents nothing of consequence except its form 

 and crumbling condition. The latter is due to the action of fire, for the 

 outside layers of it seem redder than those revealed underneath; yet no 

 other evidences of fire existed in the locality where it was found except 

 what has been already described, and we therefore conclude that the fire 



