Notes on Aboriginal Antiquities. 431 



Pliocene deposit which I have elsewhere called the " Saxicava 

 sand,"* and is from two to six feet in thickness, resting on an 

 uneven surface of the "Leda clay." 



On inquiry, I found that the workmen employed in removing 

 sand, have, at several times, found skeletons, and have buried them 

 in the clay below the sand bed, where perhaps at some future 

 time they may lead to the supposition that in Canada man 

 was contemporary with this historically very old though geolo- 

 gically very recent deposit. I record the fact of the transference 

 of these skeletons to the Leda clay, to prevent, if possible, the 

 occurrence of an error so serious. 



The skeleton found by Mr. Dorion was in a sitting or crouch- 

 ing posture, but no note had been taken of the precise position. 

 A few days afterward the workmen uncovered another which 

 I saw in situ. Tt is that of a man perhaps 50 years of 

 age. The body lay in an inclined position, the head toward the 

 west, and the face toward the south or south-west. The knees 

 were bent up close to the chest, and the arms placed in such a 

 position that the hands were opposite the face. The bones were 

 perfect as to their form, but were stained yellow by the oxide of 

 iron in the sand, and had become brittle owing to loss of animal 

 matter. The hair and all the soft parts had entirely disappeared, 

 and the skeleton had evidently been reposing for centuries where 

 it was found. No wrappings of any kind enclosed it, nor could 

 any object of art be found in the surrounding sand. It was about 

 two feet below the surface of the ground. Another skeleton sub- 

 sequently found, lay with the head toward the east, in the same 

 crouching position. Fragments of an earthen vessel were found 

 near its hands. All the above were remains of aged persons ; but 

 the workmen also found the skeleton of a child perhaps 8 or 9 

 years of age, parts only of which were preserved. 



On examining the ground in the vicinity of the excavations, I 

 found that the locality had been the site not merely of a cemetery 

 of the aborigines, but also of a village or encampment. Fragments 

 of pottery and other artificial objects and bones of wild animals 

 are scattered abundantly through the soil, especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of spots where ashes and charcoal indicate the position 

 of domestic fires. Some of these fires had been made on the 

 surface, but others in pits about a foot in diameter and of the 



* Canadian Naturalist II, p. 402, Fig. 1, E, f. 



