The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-28
EXPLORED INDIAN MOUNDS.
PROF. MOORE COMPLETES HIS
WORK IN GEORGIA.

y
Exploring the MOdnds of This
state, south Carolina and Florida.
Academy of Science of PhiIadeI-
phia VIII Get the Beneft-The In
VestigatiOn Purely Scientific and
Nothing of Special Commercial
Discovery Near Beaufort of a Clay
House of Prehistoric Workman
ship.
Prof. C. B. Moore of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. will leave
for the North this morning He has been
engaged for the last four months exploring
the old Indian mounds in this section of
the country.
This is only one Of his tours of explora-
ton in this section, however, as he has
been digging into the mounds of Georgia,
Florida and South Carolina for the last six
years. He has about exhausted the availa-
BILE material in this section, however, and
will probably not return here next season
though he may explore the west coast of
Florida.
The Gopher, the little steamer which
Prof Moore has used in his work on the
coast and rivers of Georgia for the last
several years, is advertised for sale. The
Gopher is now lying at T. F. Johnson &
Co. s coal wharf at the foot of Whitaker
street. A Morning N s reporter found
Prof. Moore aboard yes erday afternoon
and had quite. a pleasant chat with him
on the subject of his work. 1t was not the
first time Prof. Moore had been interview
ed for the Morning News, however.
During the last four months" said Prot
Moore, Il have explored the Carolina coast
from Savannah to Charleston, the savan-
nah river to Augusta, the Altamaha river
to the forks, Sapelo and st. simons islands
and a portion of the st. Johns river The
Gopher is not a sea going boat or I might
have taken a run around to the west coast
of Florida. have explored a large number
of mounds. Georgia is rich in material of
this kind. The mounds accessible from the
coast and rivers have pretty well been ex-
hausted now, but there are many mounds
back in the interior, which have not yet
been explored"
trip?" Prof. Moore was asked.
81 made one interesting discovery" he
replied. This was a clay house, which
found at the bottom Of a mound on Little
Island, in Beaufort county. So far as l
know, this is the only clay house which
has ever been discovered in a mound in
this country. The house was about thirty
seven feet square, and had been built upon
upright wooden posts, which had rotted
"a CT
the only wooden house that 1 have ever
heard of being discovered in an Indian
mound
Are these mounds correctly classed as
Indian mounds, or We're they the work of
some prehistoric racer" Prof. Moore was
asked.
The mounds were constructed by the
ancestors of the Indians" Prof. Moore re-
piled. "They were probably here when
Columbus made his first voyage of discov-
cry, certainly long before Oglethorpe set
tied this Interesting village on the Savan-
nah. There is nothing to indicate a pre-
historic race of mound builders. have
never found in all my explorations any
skeletons or bones of unusual size or any
thing to indicate that the mounds were
erected by a race of giants. The descrip-
tons of such remarkable finds which
sometimes appear in the newspapers, are
who do not understand the proper methods
of measurement. Many mounds were con-
structed for domicliary purposes. The
house of the chief was erected upon the
mound, as sort of evidence of superior
ity, 1 suppose, his followers living around
him. These mounds contain no relics. At
Pipemaker creek we explored mound, in
which we found seven or eight skeletons.
Some of these showed Interesting frac-
lob, ho1
without the bones being set. Bones of this
kind are turned over to the army and
navy medical museum at Washington"
THE mounds continued Prof Moore.
| usually contain pottery and we frequent
~ find tobacco pipes of interesting shapes.
j found pipe in a mound on the Savan-
nah river constructed precisely in the
shape Of an owl even the ears standing
out above the bowl of the pipe. The In
dams, who were the first smokers of to-
bacco. evidently used a tube at first, some
thing like a cigar or cigarette holder. into
which the tobacco was stuffed. later they
discovered that a better effect could be OBJ
tanned by fitting the pipe up, though their
pipes were tilted much further forward
than those in use with us These were
the ordinary pipes. The very large pipes
We're Known as calumets or peace pipes.
also found a very handsomely orna1 uent-
- JNit az SiiN VI Alit COAST mounds. VhG
designs were good, and had evidently l,een
impressed with wooden stamps"
Seekers after treasure in Indian mounds
VIII be disappointed, Prof Moore said II
have never found articles of enough value
in any mound to pay for the cost of dig
ging into IT," he said. There is usually
somo pottery, sometimes copper orna-
ments. and bones or skeletons. There is
no treasure to be found in the mounds"
wit
Of his researches TO the Academy Of Mt,
raj Sciences of Philadelphia, under whose
auspices they are conducted.