3:22 



together with the following abstract from the manuscript by 



"We opened these mounds in December, 1856, and the fol- 

 lowing month. There were present, assisting with their servants 

 and teams, Messrs. S. R. Phillips, John Martin, M.D., Clayton 

 Lee, John Jackson, M. Jackson, Elijah Horrel, Dr. Case, Daniel 

 Fulton, A. E. Sheelds of New Madrid, Missouri, and Geo. 

 Northcutt of Columbia and some others. 



"We cut a passage six feet wide entirely through the "Big 

 Mound" from side to side and from top to bottom, laying open 



"This mound is in Lewis' Prairie, west of New Madrid. It is 

 elliptical in form, 900 feet in periphery at the base, 570 feet at the 

 top which is nearly level and about 20 feet above the surround- 

 ing country. This is the wide bottom of New Madrid county 

 some 60 miles long and 30 to 40 wide, and is known us the 

 swamp country. This was the country effected by the New 

 Madrid earthquake of 1811. 



"A room seems to have been built by putting up poles (like raft- 

 ers in the roof of a house) ; on these rafters were placed split cane 

 (Arundinaria macrosperma) ; plaster, made of the marls of the 

 blurt formation, was then applied above and below so as to form 

 a solid mass, inclosing the rafters and lathing of cane, and this held 

 all in place ; over this room was built the earth work of the 

 was completed the room was in its centre. 



The earth wo 



the plaster. 



ture formed a soil. 



"This mud plastering was left rough on the outside of the room, 

 but smooth on the inside which was painted with red ochre. 

 (One of the pots found had been used as a paint pot). 



"Some of the plastering was burned hard as brick, but other 

 parts were only sun dried, as shown by the pieces sent. 



"Some of the rafters and cane lathes were found decayed, some 

 burned to coal and others all rotted but the bark. Some of the 

 rafters were, probably, of cypress, and others, of elm. This inner 

 plastering was found flat on the floor of the room as it had fallen 

 in, and under it were the bones and pots, the latter including 

 one that contained a human skull, which we found at one side. 

 This vessel was first hit fa 



