SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 65 



of having been undertaken, partly at least, with religious 

 views. 



On the road from Piqua to this stone wall, we passed a 

 very large mound, which had been partially cut down in 

 order to make room for the road. This mound has, as we be- 

 lieve, never been opened. In this vicinity and near 

 the bank of the river, is the residence of Colonel John 

 Johnston the Indian agent, a man whom we should judge 

 to be of estimable feelings as, unlike most of the settlers in 

 this new country, he has respected the remains of these In- ) 

 dian works, and has not suifered the ploughshare to pass 

 through them. Colonel Johnston observes, that he does not 

 know that any Indian works have been found due north of 

 Miami county, (Ohio,) though they occur to the south and 

 south-west as far as the Floridas. (Western Gazetteer, p, 

 290.) About half a mile to the south of the town of Piqua, 

 there is an old Indian cemetery, it is situated upon a level 

 piece of ground, elevated about twenty feet above high water 

 mark, and in a romantic spot intersected by a small run. The 

 surface of this place is formed by limestone rocks, laying bare 

 and deposited in horizontal strata. Upon these rocks it appears 

 that the corpses were deposited, and that they were co- 

 vered over with slabs of stone, some of which were tolera- 

 bly large ; over these a thin soil has been formed, in the 

 lapse of ages, and this supports a scanty herbage. Upon 

 reaching the spot, we found that most of these mounds 

 had been broken open for the purpose of burning in- 

 to lime the fragments of stone which composed them, and 

 of avoiding thereby the trouble of working into the solid 

 rock. We opened several, but in all cases we found the 

 bones very much injured ; indeed, all of them were more or 

 less broken except one, which was evidently a toe bone. 

 They had become very much altered, and were yellow and 



Vol. I. 9 



