204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by forty wide, in a low place where a ravine envied a surplus of 

 surface water into the river at wet seasons of the year. The 

 accumulations were often covered by clay from the hillside, so as 

 to have stratified it to a depth of eight feet in the lower part of 

 the original ravine, making it later almost level with the sur- 

 rounding river bottoms. 



The bones other than human are bear, raccoon, buffalo, moose, 

 deer, squirrel, woodchuck, rabbit, wolf, pigeon, quail, ducks, reed- 

 bird, turtles, pickerel, pike, perch, bull-head, and suckers. 



The crushed shells of land snail, periwinkle, and the fresh- 

 water clams were in great abundance. 



Several of the strata show the action of fire on their surface, 

 as if the attempt had been made to burn them over, to destroy 

 the refuse. 



The human bones in this heap were subject to the same treat- 

 ment as those of the beast, and lay often in actual contact with 

 them, and in every one of the strata. 



The bones containing marrow were all either broken into short 

 pieces or split open. The mark of the stone knife and axe is to 

 be seen on most of them, where they were hit to break or split 

 them, or in severing the joints. The ribs were cut into short bits* 

 seldom over three inches in length ; and always the knife-marks 

 are seen on the inside, except where they were severed from the 

 vertebral connection. This treatment is the same in both those 

 of the beasts and men. 



Among the number of human bones thus found one can identify 

 many different skeletons. Some of the skulls were very thin and 

 compact, showing a large and uniform curvature, while others 

 were thick, spongy, and of irregular curvature. 



The largest and coarsest bones, and those lying in the topmost 

 strata, bear a striking resemblance to the bones of the Fox and 

 Winnebago Indians slain in the Black Hawk war, many of which 

 I have examined and compared with these. 



In contact with one of the skeletons of the highest type, I 

 found beads cut from the shell of Busy con perversum, a marine 

 shell-fish, an inhabitant of the Gulf of Mexico. In another gar- 

 bage-heap similar to this one, twelve miles distant, on the same 

 stream, two whole shells of the Busy con were found by another 

 man some years previous. 



A beautiful paint-dish, or mortar, was found by another party 

 in the same locality. 



I found broken bone awls, stone drill-points, and half-finished 

 arrow-heads, as well as thousands of pieces of broken pottery. 

 Many weapons of war and implements of agriculture have been 

 found scattered over the entire surface of the village site, and 

 the hundreds of acres of garden-beds adjoining it. 



