The climate is relatively humid, the annual rainfall at the Gilmer station averaging 43.5 inches (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, _Climatological Data, Texas_, V. 63, No. 13: 361). The mean annual temperature for Upshur County is 65 degrees (_Ibid._: 357). SITE DESCRIPTION The Harroun Site was situated on the south floodplain of Cypress Creek on the outside of a large bend (Fig. 1). The only occupational features visible on the surface were four small mounds, round to slightly oval in shape, with rounded tops. They were designated Mounds A, B, C, and D. A long, narrow lake, evidently surviving from an old cut-off channel of Cypress Creek, lay beside the creek channel in the northwestern part of the site. Mound A, located 75 feet south of the creek and 350 feet east of the lake, was by far the smallest of the four mounds. It measured about 30 feet in diameter and rose to a maximum height of approximately two feet above the surface of the floodplain. Mound B stood at the south end of the lake, Mound C was on the west bank of the lake, and Mound D was situated in a precarious position on the brink of the floodplain at the creek channel, 150 feet downstream from Mound A. A shallow depression beside Mound C and two small depressions by Mound B marked possible borrow areas. Mounds B, C, and D were all approximately the same size, about 50 feet in diameter and 2.5 to 3.5 feet high. The floodplain of Cypress Creek in the vicinity of the Harroun Site was overgrown with an almost impenetrable tangle of underbrush and second growth timber. Old-timers, however, reported that many years ago, before the virgin timber was cut, the stream valleys in this region supported a tall growth of timber with virtually no underbrush. GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT The geology at the Harroun Site may be summarized in tabular form as follows: Zone II. A stratum of sand forming the surface of the floodplain, varying from about 5 to 12 feet thick. Zone II was divided into three parts, IIa, IIb, and IIc. Zone IIc. Humus-stained topsoil, the superficial portion of the Zone II sand member, 0.6 to 1.1 feet thick. Zone IIb. Grayish to whitish sand with irregular-shaped patches of brownish sand. The brown patches probably represent subsurface staining of the gray-white sands by iron salts carried by percolating water. Zone IIb was 2.0 to 3.1 feet thick where exposed. Zone IIa. Grayish to whitish sand similar to IIb, but without the patches of brown sand. This zone was heavily saturated with subsurface water wherever encountered, and the presence of the water may have kept the iron salts in solution, thereby explaining the absence of the stains. The thickness of Zone IIa was not determined since seeping ground water prevented excavating down to its base.