Too Long; Didn't Read

At a depth of fifteen feet, we were about to suspend our labors, supposing from the nature and uniformly dark color of the earth, that we had reached the surface of the alluvium, when a sign of the inevitable wood and bark layer was seen in a crevice. An excavation, five or six feet, into the wall, revealed the skeleton of a man laid at length, having an extra coverlid of wooden material. Eighteen large oblong beads, an ax of polished green stone, eleven arrow points, and five implements of bone (to be described) were deposited on the left side; and a few small beads, an ornamental shell pin, two small hatchets, and a sharp-pointed flint knife or lance, eight inches long, having a neck or projection at the base, suitable for a handle, or for insertion in a shaft, on the right side. The earth behind the skull being removed, three enormous conch shells presented their open mouths. One of my assistants started back as if the ghost of the departed had come to claim the treasure preserved, in accordance with superstitious notions, for its journey to the "happy lands." The alarm seemed to be a warning, for at the moment the embankment, overloaded on one side, caved in, nearly burying three workmen, myself, and a spectator. Our tools being at the bottom of the heap, and the wall on the other side, shaken by the falling earth, giving tokens of a change of base, our prospects of a ready deliverance were not very hopeful. The bystanders, however, went to work with their hands, and we were soon relieved, not without casualty, the spectator having the worst of it. Struggling to extricate himself, instead of abiding his time, he dragged one leg out of the pile shorter than the other.