NATCHEZ &045; Walter Biglane walks along his property from time to time, surveying it and its changes. Lately, the water flow of a small creek on the property has risen, causing erosion on its banks. It is there Biglane found bones about a month ago.

Since then, he has been watching the progress of the creek and, Thursday morning as he walked along the creek, discovered the bones were being washed away.

He decided it was time to call someone to identify the remains. Biglane called Adams County Coroner James Lee for help, not wanting to disturb the findings.

When Lee and Biglane dug out the bones, &uot;there were about 30 to 40 of them,&uot; including leg and rib bones but no skulls, Lee said.

The bones had deteriorated, apparently due to age, but an anthropologist has been called to determine whether the bones are human and how old they are.

As of Thursday afternoon, Lee was packing the bones to transport them to Dr. Ed Waldrip, a Hattiesburg anthropologist.

Waldrip was also called in 2001 to study bones found in the chimney of the River Boat Gift Shop at Natchez Under-the-Hill.

Biglane said he does not know what the bones are for sure, but he thinks the bones may just be from an animal.

&uot;There was a pretty large femur,&uot; Biglane said. &uot;That’s the one that seemed to be an animal because it was so large. But the rest of it is questionable.&uot;

Biglane said the bones were not easy to notice, but he had been paying particular attention to that creek bed. The bones definitely aroused his curiosity.

Biglane said the bones must have been buried, looking to be about 6 feet underground before the creek washed away the soil.

&uot;The way it was in the ground, somebody would have had to bury that,&uot; Biglane said.

So now, it is just a waiting game.

&uot;I’m just waiting for them to find out what the details are,&uot; Biglane said.

&uot;I would definitely like to know what the anthropologist had to say about it,&uot; he said, wondering if the bones have any tie to Natchez history.