The charcoal layer was not observed in this mound, though it may have existed to one side or the other of the excavation. Several other large mounds occur on the plain in the vicinity of the one here described, a number of which were examined with similar results. It may be observed that in most instances, in mounds of this description, the skeleton is found enveloped in bark or matting, (it is difficult in some cases to decide which,) instead of being enclosed in a chamber of timber.
Fig. 54 exhibits a section of a mound in which burial by fire had been practised.[107] It is situated within the corporate limits of the city of Chillicothe, and was originally above twenty-five feet in height, though now reduced to about twenty. The customary shaft was sunk from its apex. At six feet below the surface a layer of charcoal, corresponding in all respects with that described in connection with the first example of mounds of this class, was found. It was placed a little to the eastern side of the mound, a circumstance not shown in the figure, which exhibits a section from north to south. Upon the original level of the earth was found a deposit or layer of charcoal and ashes six or eight feet square and from six inches to a foot in thickness. In this layer were discovered fragments of human bones; a stone hand-axe; several thin pieces of copper which had been worked into shape; and also a number of stones of the harder and less common kinds, fragments of sienite, gneiss, etc. The stone hand-axe here obtained, it is a remarkable fact, is the only one which has been recovered from the mounds, which incontestibly belonged to [p166] the builders. Several of like character have nevertheless been found elsewhere. It is figured under the head of «Implements». The fire in this case had been a strong one, as is evidenced from the fact that the skeleton had here been almost entirely consumed. That it had also been heaped over while burning, was shown by the charcoal, which was coarse and clear, and by the baking of the earth immediately above it. In some instances, in which burial by incremation has been practised, the entire skeleton is traceable. In such cases it has been observed that the charcoal occurs beneath as well as above the skeleton, demonstrating that the body had been placed upon a pyre of some sort before burning. Remains of art, for obvious reasons, are not abundant in this description of sepulchral mounds; nor is the supplementary charcoal layer of frequent occurrence.