WORK OF MR. CYRUS THOMAS.
The work of exploring the mounds of the eastern United States was, as in former years, under the superintendence of Mr. Cyrus Thomas. The efforts of the division were chiefly confined to the examination of material already collected and to the arrangement and preparation for publication of the data on hand. Field work received less attention, therefore, than in previous years, and was mainly directed to such investigations as were necessary to elucidate doubtful points and to the examination and surveys of important works which had not before received adequate attention.
The only assistants to Mr. Thomas whose engagements embraced the entire year were Mr. James D. Middleton and Mr. Henry L. Reynolds. Mr. Gerard Fowke, one of the assistants, ceased his connection with the Bureau at the end of the second month. Mr. John W. Emmert was engaged as a temporary assistant for a few months.
WORK OF MR. GERARD FOWKE.
During the short time in which he remained with the division, Mr. Fowke was engaged in exploring certain mounds in the Sciota valley, Ohio, a field to which Messrs. Squier and Davis had devoted much attention. Its reexamination was for the purpose of investigating certain typical mounds which had not been thoroughly examined by those explorers.
WORK OF MR. J. D. MIDDLETON.
Mr. Middleton was employed from July to the latter part of October in the exploration of mounds and other ancient works in Calhoun county, Illinois, a territory to which special interest attaches because it seems to be on the border line of different archeologic districts. From October until December he was engaged at Washington in preparing plats of Ohio earthworks. During the next month he made resurveys of some of the more important inclosures in Ohio, after which he resumed work in the office at Washington until the latter part of March, when he was sent to Tennessee to examine several mound groups and to determine, so far as possible, the exact locations of the old Cherokee “over-hill towns.” The result of the last-mentioned investigation was valuable, as it indicated that each of these “over-hill towns” was, with possibly one unimportant exception, in the locality of a mound group.
WORK OF MR. H. L. REYNOLDS.
Near the close of October Mr. Reynolds, having already examined the inclosures of the northern, eastern, and western sections of the mound region, went to Ohio and West Virginia to study the different types found there, with reference to the chapters he was preparing on the various forms of ancient inclosures in the United States. While thus engaged he explored a large mound connected with one of the typical works in Paint creek valley, obtaining unexpected and important results. The construction of this tumulus was found to be quite different from most of those in the same section examined by Messrs. Squier and Davis.