SOME REMAINS of ANTIQUITY. i3r 



N°. XXIII. 



Obfervations and ConjcElurcs concerning certain Articles 

 which were taken out of an ancient Tumulus , or Grave, 

 at Cincifjnati, in the County of Hamiltony and Territory 

 of the United-States^ North-lVeJi of the River Ohio : 

 in a letter from Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. 

 to the Reverend Joseph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. 

 &c. 



Philadelphia, May i6th, 1796. 

 Reverend and Dear Sir, 



Read May A S you exprcfled a defire to fee my obferva- 

 io, 1796. £\_ tions and conjedlures concerning the arti- 

 cles which were lately prefented to the Philofophical 

 Society, through my hands, by Colonel Winthrop Sar- 

 gent, I take the liberty of troubling you with them, and 

 fhall think myfelf fortunate if they contribute any thing 

 to your information, or amufement. I need not tell you, 

 that you will fometimes find me leaving the fure road 

 of hiftorical inquiry, for the narrow, and too often un- 

 certain, path of the antiquary. In moft of the invefH- 

 gations and refearches of the antiquary , fome uncertainty 

 is neceflarily involved. The light which ferves to con- 

 dudl him is frequently extremely faint : the imagination 

 and conjedture are, therefore, naturally called in to his 

 aid. if this be ever allowable, it is efpecially fo in an in- 

 quiry, fuch as the prefent, where the fubjedts of invefli- 

 gation have been taken from the darknefs of the Grave. 

 For the account of the difcovery of the articles, con^ 

 cerning which 1 am about to offer my opinion, I refer 

 you to Colonel Sargent's letter to me, which has been 

 read before the Philofophical Society, and which you 

 A a will 



