S E P U L C H R A L M O IT N D R . 171 



Number 2 occurs upon the plain in the immediate vicinity of Chillicothe, and 

 is numl)ered 4 in the Map of a section of the Scioto valley, Plate II. The small 

 one indicated by the letter j was excavated, and found to contain the skeleton of 

 •A girl enveloped in bark, in the manner already described. The largest of the 

 group is about thirty feet in height. 



Number 3 is situated in Pike county, Ohio, and is indicated in the plan of the 

 "Graded Way" near Piketou, Plate XXXI. 



Something like this arrangement was observed by Com. Wilkes, 

 in the mounds of Oregon. They occurred in groups of five, as 

 shown in P'ig. 58, — the largest occupying the centre. 



May we not conclude that these groups are family tombs; the 

 FiT'^-,3. principal mound containing the head of the family, the smaller ones 

 its various members? In the case of the Grave creek mound, it is possible that, 

 instead of building an additional mound, a supplementary chamber was constructed 

 upon a mound already raised, — a single mound being thus made to fill the place of 

 a group. This suggestion derives some support from the fact that the second 

 chamber is placed, above the lower vault, at about the usual heigh t of the larger 

 sepulchral mounds.* 



It is not to be supposed that the mounds were the sole cemeteries of the race 

 tliat built them. They were probably erected only over the bodies of the chief- 

 tains and priests, perhaps also over the ashes of distinguished families. The 

 graves of the great mass of the ancient people who thronged our valleys, and the 

 silent monuments of whose toil are seen on every hand, were not thus signalized. 

 We scarcely know where to turn to find them. Every day the plough uncovers 

 crumbling remains ; but they elicit no remark, — are passed by and forgotten. The 

 wasting banks of our rivers occasionally display extensive cemeteries, but sufficient 

 attention has never been bestowed upon them to enable us to speak with any 

 degree of certainty of their date, or to distinguish whether they belonged to the 

 mound-builders or a subsequent race. These cemeteries are often of such extent, 

 as to give a name to the locality in which they occur. Thus we hear, on the 

 Wabash, of the "Big Bone Bank," and the "Little Bone Bank," from which, it 

 is represented, the river annually washes many human skeletons, accompanied by 

 numerous and singular remains of art, among which are more particularly men- 

 tioned vases and other vessels of pottery, of remarkable and often fantastic form. 

 At various places in the States north of the Ohio, thousands of graves are said to 

 occur, placed in ranges parallel to each other. The extensive cemeteries of Ten- 

 nessee and Missouri have often been mentioned, and it has been conjectured that 

 the caves of Kentucky and Ohio were grand depositories of the dead of the 

 ancient people. We have, however, nothing at all satisfactory upon the subject, 



* The barrows denominated the " Bell Barrows," of England, are thought, by English antiquarians, to 

 be a modification of the " Bowl Barrow," formed by placing a new top upon the latter, and otherwise 

 enlarging it, for the purpose of fresh interment. It is common in this description of barrows, to find one 

 buriiil above the other, as at Urave creek. 



