HOW A MOUND WAS BUILT. "While exploring mounds in Ohio this season, under the direction of the National Bureau of Ethnology," says Mr. Gerard Fowke, in a paper prepared for _Science_, "I used great care in the examination of one mound in Pike County, in order to ascertain, if possible, the exact method of its construction. "The mound was built upon the site of a house, which had probably been occupied by those whose skeletons were found. The roof had been supported by side posts, and at intervals by additional inner posts. The outer posts were arranged in pairs a few inches apart, then an interval of about three feet, then two more, and so on. They were all about eight inches in diameter, and extended from two and a half to three feet into the ground, except one a few feet from the center, which went down fully five feet. All the holes were filled with the loose dark dirt which results from decay of wood; a few contained fragments of charcoal, burned bones or stone, but no ashes; nor was the surrounding earth at all burned. "Around the outside a trench from three to four feet wide, and from eighteen to twenty inches deep, had been dug, to carry away the water which fell from the roof. Near the middle of this house, which measured about forty feet from side to side, a large fire had been kept burning for several hours, the ashes being removed from time to time. The ash bed was elliptical in form, measuring about thirteen feet from east to west, and five from north to south. Under the center of it was a hole, ten inches across and a foot deep, filled with clean white ashes in which was a little charcoal, packed very hard. At the western end, on the south side (or farthest from the center of the house), was a mass of burned animal bones, ashes, and charcoal. This was continuous with the ash bed, though apparently not a part of it. The bones were in small pieces, and were, no doubt, the remains of a funeral feast or offering.