in a pot, and the long bones were deposited in its immediate vicinity.  Again, the pots would contain only sand, and fragments of bones would be found near them.  The most successful “find” I made was a whole nest of pots, to the number of half a dozen, all in a good state of preservation, and buried with a fragment of skull, which I take, from its small size, to have been that of a female.  Whether this female was thus distinguished above all others buried in the mound by the number of pots deposited with her remains because of her skill in the manufacture of such ware, or by reason of the unusual wealth of her sorrowing husband, must remain a matter of conjecture.  I found, altogether, fragments of skulls and thigh-bones belonging to at least fifty individuals, but in no instance did I find anything like a complete skeleton.  There wore no vertebrae, no ribs, no pelvic bones, and none of the small bones of the hands and feet.  Two or three skulls, nearly perfect, were found, but they were so fragile that it was impossible to preserve them.  In the majority of instances, only fragments of the frontal and parietal bones were found, buried in pots or in fragments of pots too small to have ever contained a complete skull.  The conclusion was irresistible that this was not a burial-place for the bodies of deceased Indians, but that the bones had been gathered from some other locality for burial in this mound, or that cremation was practiced before burial, and the fragments of bone not consumed by fire were gathered and deposited in the mound.  That the latter supposition is the correct one I deem probable from the fact that in digging in the mound evidences of fire are found in numerous places, but without any regularity as to depth and position.  These evidences consist in strata of from one to four inches in thickness, in which the sand is of a dark color and has mixed with it numerous small fragments of charcoal.

My theory is that the mound was built by gradual accretion in the following manner:  That when a death occurred a funeral pyre was erected on the mound, upon which the body was placed.  That after the body was consumed, any fragments of bones remaining were gathered, placed in a pot, and buried, and that the ashes and cinders were covered by a layer of sand brought from the immediate vicinity for that purpose.  This view is further supported by the fact that only the shafts of the long bones are found, the expanded extremities, which would be most easily consumed, having disappeared; also, by the fact that no bones of children were found.  Their bones being smaller, and containing a less proportion of earthy matter, would be entirely consumed. * * *

At the Santa Rosa mound the method of burial was different.  Here I found the skeletons complete, and obtained nine well-preserved skulls. * * * The bodies were not, apparently, deposited upon any regular system, and I found no objects of interest associated with the remains.