1868.] 221 [Perry. 



emblems referred to. This, when compared with some of the Mexican 

 antiquities interpreted as having such a signification, seems certainly 

 with as much clearness as they, to point to the flood associated with 

 the name of Noah. Some of the arrow-heads found in this burial- 

 place, were made of a stone different from any, so far as I am aware, 

 occurring in the region. It is of a fine grain, and very compact, and 

 might be Avrought by the lapidary. A few ornamental pieces, also 

 discovered in the same place, were made from a limestone closely 

 resembling the Rutland marble. The human bones exhumed from 

 these old graves are, in most cases, more decayed than those which 

 are with considerable certainty regarded as the remains of the St. 

 Francis tribe. Paints are frequently discovered in connection with the 

 other relics, and what appear to be pieces of antique cloth are occa- 

 sionally met with. Shell-beads and short tubes of copper, which 

 were probably once strung together, and formed either wampum, a 

 species of necklace, or some other such ornament, are of very ordin- 

 ary occurrence, while no beads like those used by the St. Francis 

 tribe, at a much later day, are ever met with in this more ancient 

 repository of the dead. It is accordingly my Impression — I may say, 

 indeed, that an examination of many of these relics has awakened in 

 me the conviction — that this ancient people, though more abor- 

 iginal, were in many respects, especially In cultivation and refine- 

 ment, much further advanced than the later inhabitants of the forest. 

 The utensils found in their graves are usually of a finer finish, evinc- 

 mg tar greater skill in the execution, and a much higher degree of 

 artistic taste, than have usually appeared among the more recent 

 Indians. 



But at various other points in the immediate vicinity, in many 

 localities besides the two places of interment just noticed, Indian 

 relics have been found. Hatchets, arrow-heads, chisels and divers 

 other implements have been picked up on the surface of the soil, and 

 often brought to light by the plough. Chips of chert, or flint, as I well 

 remember, occur in one locality in considerable abundance, although 

 the only I'ock of a like kind in its natural position, known to occur in 

 the whole region, is several miles away. These fragments I have been 

 inclined to consider as the refuse material left by the Indians in mak- 

 ing their spear- and arrow-heads. In several places, also, urns or vases 

 of different kinds have been discovered. So vessels made of steatite 

 or soapstone, and suited to be used over a fire, as a pot or kettle, are 

 occasionally met with. These I have been disposed to regard, on 

 account of their superior finish, as the workmanship of the more 



