i 9 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



One of these, just opened in an excavation for a new oil well, 

 showed a pit twenty-seven feet deep, cribbed up with timber, and 

 containing a rude ladder like those found in the Lake Superior 

 copper mines. The timber used for the inclosure of the ancient 

 pit had been cut with a blunt-edged instrument, doubtless of 



stone. 



I afterward found similar pits in the oil regions of Kentucky 

 and Tennessee, at Mecca and Grafton, Ohio, and at Enniskillen, 

 in Canada. In the latter locality the oil was obtained by sinking 

 pits to the depth of forty or fifty feet in the Drift clay, the oil issu- 

 ing from crevices in the underlying rock and accumulating be- 

 neath the clay. In the excavation of one of these pits an ancient 

 one of similar character was brought to light. This was filled 

 with rubbish, twigs, leaves, etc., and a pair of antlers was taken 

 from it at a depth of thirty-seven feet. The antiquity of this pit, 

 like those of Oil Creek, was proved by the large trees growing 

 over it. 



The contents of their sepulchral mounds have supplied some 

 information though less than we desire of the domestic habits 

 of the mound-builders. Usually the bones they contain are so 

 much decomposed in the lapse of time that they have given us 

 but an imperfect knowledge of their osteology. From the few 

 remains found well preserved we may, however, infer that as a 

 people they were of average size, of fair proportions, and with a 

 cranial development not unlike that of our modern Indians. The 

 jaws were somewhat prognathous ; their teeth as is usual with all 

 peoples who make much use of their jaws for mastication are 

 strong and regular; and the wisdom-tooth, which in our jaws, 

 shortened by disuse, has inadequate room and is of little value, 

 was with them one of the largest and most useful of the set. On 

 account of the lengthened under jaw, the incisors met in direct 

 opposition, and apparently because they used their teeth for grind- 

 ing seeds of which the envelopes contained much silica, they are 

 often found uniformily worn down nearly to the jaw. We know 

 little of the crops the mound-builders cultivated except that their 

 great staple was corn, and that they raised and used tobacco. 



They buried their dead with imposing ceremonies, and not un- 

 frequently cremated their remains on a kind of altar which occu- 

 pies the center of the sepulchral mound, and, as is the habit with 

 perhaps all primitive people, vases, weapons, tools, and ornaments 

 were buried with the body. Of these the pottery sometimes shows 

 considerable taste and skill the vessels having graceful forms 

 and being often ornamented with colors or with incised designs. 

 The weapons and implements that are found so abundantly in the 

 mounds and scattered over the surface are rarely of copper, gen- 

 erally of stone. Of these the arrow-heads, spear-heads, daggers, 



