Fortunately the composition of this interesting mound is of a nature to
facilitate exact conclusions. It was composed of homogeneous, hght-brown
clay, and a mixture of this clay and black soil from the surface filled the pits,
all of which evidently had been dug from the surface at a time when the deposit
of black midden-soil thereon was greater than it was at the time of our investiga-
tion. Hence delimitation of the graves was a matter of comparative ease.
The aboriginal burials (there were some comparatively recent ones which
we did not permanently disturb) seemed to have been placed in the eastern portion
of the central part of the mound.
The pits contained accumulations of skeletal remains, but were not filled
with them; nor were the bones in one mass, they having been placed here and
there in different parts of the grave (some always on the base of it) as if, after a
deposit, partial filling had taken place and then other deposits had been made and
covered. These deposits, the bones of which were all very badly decayed, were
made up sometimes of the bones of one individual apparently, sometimes of a
number.
As the burials in this mound present features of considerable interest, they
will be described in detail.
Burial No. 1. This pit, roughly circular, 8 feet by 9 feet and 4.5 feet in
depth, contained deposits of bones beginning 18 inches below the surface, among
which were sixteen crania. At times, long-bones slanting upward rested along
the sides of the pit, as was the case in other burials in this mound.
