396 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ANCIENT CLOTH FROM THE MOUNDS OF OHIO. 



THE following discription of some samples of ancient cloth from the 

 mounds of Ohio was given by J. G. Foster, Esq. U. S. Geologist, at 

 the American Association, Albany : 



As far back as the year 1838, (said Mr. Foster,) I procured from a 

 person residing in Jackson Co., Ohio, several fragments of cloth, mostly 

 decayed, which he had taken from a low mound in that vicinity. 

 This fact was so novel in itself, and so at variance with the prevail- 

 ing ideas as to the degree of civilization and the knowledge of the arts 

 among the mound-builders, that I hesitated about making it public, 

 fearing that it might have been a modern substitution, and that, by 

 publishing, I might be the means of propagating error. But within 

 a recent period I have received from Mr. John Woods, of Ohio, 

 additional samples, accompanied with evidence, and a description of 

 the circumstances under which they were found. A quantity of charred 

 cloth, (says Mr. Woods,) was dug out of a mound on the west side of 

 the Great Miami River, in Madison township, Butler Co., Ohio. Its 

 height was originally twenty feet, but when first seen by Mr. Woods, 

 thirty years ago, it was probably sixteen feet high. It was covered 

 fifty years ago with large forest trees, as we are informed by the old 

 settlers. The Cincinnati and Dayton Railroad runs through one side of 

 the mound, half of which has been cut down for the track. The workmen 

 have found an arrow and a considerable quantity of charcoal, cloth and 

 bones. A quantity of this cloth was preserved by Mr. Woods, in 

 nearly the same condition in which it was found in the mound. The 

 bones were few and small. Very little earth appeared to be mixed with 

 the coal and cloth, which were evidently in the position in which they 

 had been placed when burned and covered up. The charcoal appeared 

 to be on the outside of the cloth. 



The only question which arises in my mind, (says Mr. Woods,) as 

 to the time when the charcoal and cloth were deposited in the mound, 

 is whether the mound erected by an anterior race may not have been 

 made a burying-place by the Indians, and that they had wrapped their 

 dead in the cloth, and after partially burning the bodies, or the bones 

 and cloth, had covered up the fire. I thought of this question at the 

 time, and was careful to examine, as fully as was then practicable, the 

 condition of the earth around and over the relics which I dug out, and 

 it appeared to me that the original formation could not have been dis- 

 turbed, after it was placed in the mound. There is no evidence, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Foster, (whose language is now resumed,) that the 

 North American Indians possessed the art of spinning and weaving, 

 when first known to the white man. An art so conducive to the com- 

 fort and convenience of man, when once acquired, would not become 

 lost ; nor would it be rational to infer that this cloth was a European 

 fabric, obtained by the Indians, and substituted in the mound, within 

 comparatively recent times, for the following reasons : In the Butler 

 Co. mound, the semi-stratification described by Mr. Woods indicates 

 no disturbance ; and the material of this cloth is not such as a civil- 

 ized race would manufacture to traffic with a barbarous one, it being 

 more costly than wool, and less adapted to the purposes of clothing. 



