A perpendicular shaft was sunk from the centre of the summit to the centre of the base, and two horizontal shafts were made, one at eighteen feet, and another at thirty-six feet respectively. At a depth of four feet from the top, there was a layer of wood ashes. At eight feet there was discovered a skeleton and some decayed wood. At fifteen feet there was a layer of charcoal and lime. At the depth of twenty-four feet a singular construction was found. It consisted of an upright stone, standing upon two flat stones, together with a number of rounded water-worn stones. With these there was some closely pressed material, looking like a kind of cloth made from wood fibre. Upon reaching the depth of thirty feet, there was discovered a quantity of charcoal and ashes. Six feet below this was a hollow space and, from the character of the contents within, it was supposed that there must have been a vault there, which had been surrounded and covered with logs of wood. At the base of the mound there was a large quantity of charcoal. Before the tumulus was opened, it had been conjectured that it was raised by the Indians for the purposes of observation. It is situated at the extreme western limit of the territories of the Mound Builders, and at a considerable distance from any of their other earthworks. The other great burial mound was placed in a similar manner beyond the eastern boundary at the confluence of a small stream called the Grave Creek with the Ohio, near Wheeling. On my way there by the river, I passed the mouths of the Scioto and Muskinghum, and the towns of Portsmouth and Marietta,[13] where are the remains of extensive encampments. The Grave Creek Mound is similar to that at Miamisburgh, but it is, in all its measurements, rather larger and rises to a height of seventy feet. In the early part of the present century, some slight excavations were made upon the slopes, and it was then ascertained that numerous skeletons were buried there. In the year 1838, a more thorough system of examination was adopted. A shaft was carried through horizontally from the surface of the ground at the base to the centre. Then a perpendicular shaft was sunk from the centre of the summit to the base, connecting these with the passage already opened. At three feet from the summit there was found a skeleton in a complete state of decay. Thirty-two feet lower down, there was a small vault or structure of logs of wood, within which was another skeleton also decayed. At the base there was a larger vault, containing two skeletons which were in a sufficiently well preserved condition to enable them, subsequently, to be exhibited. These skeletons were found to be partly enveloped in a fibrous material, and they were placed within a structure, formed by a number of upright logs of wood, covered by other similar logs placed horizontally. Upon the top of this roof there had been piled a small heap of stones.