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Rh into this mound and recovered some valuable pottery. One large basin was made in imitation of a duck with wings and bill exposed.

Resuming the exploration, the surface was dug over for a space of 30 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep. Within that area not less than one thousand skeletons were exhumed and at least two wagon loads of pot-sherds. This pottery commenced about a foot from the surface and extended down to the first stratum of bones.

Mound No. 4 was only 4 feet high and 15 feet in base diameter. Upon examination it was found to contain no relics.



Mound No. 5 was 10 feet high and 32 feet in base diameter, and very symmetrically shaped. It was situated on a hummock about 50 yards from the margin of the arm of Payne's Prairie. This was formerly a lake, but about twenty years ago the water disappeared through the sink. It remained dry for about three years, when it filled with water and has remained a lake ever since. This mound was examined (see Fig. 4) and a stratum of ashes, charcoal, and charred bones encountered 3 feet from the surface.

Mound No. 6 was about 8 feet high and 80 feet in base diameter. It stood in a cleared field which had been plowed over for a number of years. Nothing was discovered within it, although a ditch was cut through from one side to the other.

 

Short Creek is a little stream that enters the Ohio River 9 miles above the city of Wheeling, and the shell deposit alluded to commences to show in the bank of the river some 50 yards above the mouth of this creek, and is exposed for over 100 feet up the river, when it is hidden by a fill for a road down to the water. The shells are those of the freshwater clam and are very fragile, splitting into fine scales on handling, though an occasional one is found that is perfect. The shells are now covered with about 3 feet of silt, and formerly there were 3 or 4 feet of the same loamy deposit over this, but it was removed in grading for a public road. A portion of this road, with much of the deposit of shells, has fallen into the river by the caving in of the bank.

