232 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



fact which would do away with the sug'g'estion of a tumulus to 

 account for the dome-shaped crown of the island where most of 

 them are to be found. This is sufficiently shown, on the upper 

 side ot the island, where the cut bank in falling- away has exposed 

 sections of graves so clearly as to leave no room to doubt that 

 they were excavated. 



The usual mode of sepulture seems to have been to swathe 

 the remains of the dead warrior in birch bark and place them, 

 with or without his personal effects, in a shallow grave from two 

 to three feet below the surface of the ground, in a recumbent 

 rather ihan a prostrate posture. With one exception the burials 

 are single, but in excavating the foundations ot the lighthouse, 

 recently erected by the Marine Department, at the highest point 

 of the island, the workmen laid bare a great accumulation of 

 bones, which would seem to indicate the presence of an ossuary, 

 the approximate extent of which may be judged from the fact that 

 a cartload of bones was removed from the holes for the base sup- 

 ports of the superstructure. 



If, therefore, we may rely upon the testimony of the workmen 

 who excavated the foundations of the lighthouse, and there is no 

 reason why we should not do so, then, we have on this island two 

 distinct modes of sepulture, the single and communal. This 

 would lead to the conclusion that two different races, practising 

 variant mortuary rites, were contemporaneous occupants of the 

 lake shores, according to each other the privileges of a common 

 burial place. The presence of the communal grave is accounted 

 for, as a matter of course, by shadowy Indian traditions of a 

 bloody native battle fought in the vicinity. A. F. Hunter, in 

 dealing with a kindred subject, " The Rice Lake and Innisfil 

 Mounds," says that " the same is true of every bone-pit or com- 

 munal grave of any kind from Montreal to Detroit, none of which 

 could be understood by the modern Algonkins as burials made in 

 times of peace." 



Now, in the first place, the bones on the Lighthouse Island 

 have been thrown into the pit promiscuously, as they are not 

 grouped in the relative positions which would naturally follow if 

 they had been buried in the flesh. In the second place, if an 

 invading force had been met and "wiped out" by the warriors of 



