372 ETHNOLOGY. 



out, there were fouucl mixed with it in great abundauce fragments 

 of pottery, a quantity of charcoal, many charred and half-burned 

 pieces of bark which had passed through several stages of combus- 

 tion, some of them being in part entirely unaltered by the fire ; and, 

 above all, sev^eral large lumps of unworked clay, partially hardened by 

 fire. The neighbors inform me that this clay must have been brought 

 from a considerable distance, as none like it, and, indeed, no clay at all, 

 is found within many miles of this place. In the specimens of pottery 

 sent, I would call your attention to the peculiar markings on the con- 

 cave surfaces of most of it. 1 at first supposed that these were made by 

 some artificial process for decorative purposes, though it seemed strange 

 to j)lace decorations inside the objects; but a neighboring gentleman 

 called my attention to the exact resemblance these markings bore to the 

 corrugations on beech-bark, and I was led to the conclusion that the 

 pottery had been molded around an interior core constructed of beech- 

 bark. I think there is no doubt but that the excavation I have de- 

 scribed was an oven or kiln for baking the pottery. 



3d. The presence of infant skeletons in great number, buried with 

 the same elaboration in all its details as above described in the case of 

 the adult sepulchre. Some fragments of cranial bones from these are in- 

 closed in package No. 7. The undeveloped and imperfectly ossified con- 

 dition of the infant cranium renders it improbable that entire infant- 

 crania will be discovered ; which is the more to be regretted as it would 

 be interesting to observe the bones in the early stage of the flattening 

 process, which seems to have been customary in this tribe. 



To sum up this part of my view, then : The elaborate and substantial 

 character and large number of the graves, the evidences of arrange- 

 ment for the manufacture of stone implements and pottery, and the 

 presence of a considerable number of infant skeletons, all carefully buried, 

 satisfy me that this burial-place was an appendage to some permanently- 

 occupied Indian village. 



But, when ? There are some considerations which seem to throw us 

 back upon prehistoric times for an answer — that is, what are to us Amer- 

 icans prehistoric times. 



In Europe, these flint-weapons would carry us back to the mysterious 

 nationalities which occupied the site of Troy before the Troy of Priam 

 and Hector existed, or to those unknown tribes which lived in Hebron 

 before the seed of Abraham had germinated in Palestine. With us, 

 prehistoric times come down to a much more recent period. Anything 

 l)revious to the permanent occupation of a region by the European races 

 is with us prehistoric, and west of the Kocky Mountains there are tribes 

 still in the neolithic stage of development, using just such flint arrow- 

 heads and hatchets as I send you, to-day. 



The evidences that, relatively to the Boones and Donelsons and Eob- 

 ertsons who first settled these regions, the remains now under discus- 

 sion are prehistoric, are as follows : 



