222 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920
here the spirea tops, sticking up through the water, are as definitely in rows as elsewhere. Furthermore, several changes within historic times must have effected some changes of level over the entire region, such as, for instance, the building of a dam in Mill river a little below this about 150 years ago, and probably also the for- mation of the solid railroad embankment in 1840. There is de- cided indication of spring inundations over that part where the corn-hills are not now very apparent, and we may readily assume that such profound surface changes as have taken place over this region, dams, embankments, and so on, have brought about changes in the conditions over the surface, and in the action of the water.
While in general the separate hills are fairly uniform in size and shape, conical mounds of perhaps two feet in diameter, and 8 to 12 inches in height, there are certain regions where the mounds are irregular in shape, and prolonged laterally, generally obliquely, to give the appearance of the conventional gravemound (fig. 13, 4). In one place, and involving some two rows, these oblong mounds come in succession and involve twenty to thirty hills in all. In one portion of the field the ground is covered with hardhack, Spirea tomentosa, which, as is its habit, picks out the elevations and leaves the lower levels bare (fig. 13, 5). Here, even in November, when the bushes are represented by bare and dry stalks the alignment is well seen by following the tips of the dry bushes, and thus where other- wise the area would be a hopeless tangle, the definite alignment of the corn-hills is as clearly marked as elsewhere.
In some places, whether the mounds are quite free from the spirea, which must have somewhat of a protective effect upon them, or from some other reason, such as inundations, the mounds are being gradually worn down, and in some directions or in some lightings are but dimly seen (fig. 13, 6). The particular ones shown in this figure lie near the railroad embankment and they may have suffered from some of the circumstances incident to this work. Finally, over the easternmost half of this field the corn-hills have all but disappeared, although there are sufficient traces here and there to assure one that this tract, as well as the part where the preservation is more perfect, was once included in the original corn- planting lands.
�� �
