*;44 EXPEDITION TO THE 



and that they were cut off by their forefathers. This suppo 

 sition is grounded upon tlie circumstance of their having 

 found'human bones buried in the earth at a much greater 

 depth than that, at which they are accustomed to inter their 

 dead; and in graves which differ from theirs, inasmuch 

 as they are unaccompanied by instruments of any kind, 

 whereas they never omit depositing the arms, &:c. with 

 the corpse of the deceased. It is also said that tomahawks of 

 b?'ass (?) and other implements differing from those in 

 common use among the present Indians, have likewise been 

 found under the surface of the ground. The fortifications 

 appear to them likewise to be a proof of the correctness of 

 their opinion, as none of the Indians are in the habit of con- 

 structing works of a similar character, and as indeed they 

 are unacquainted with the utility of them. 



" Mr. Brisbois, who has been for a long time a resident 

 of Prairie du Chien, informed me that he saw the skele- 

 tons of eight persons, that were found, in digging a cellar 

 near his house, lying side by side. They were of a gigan- 

 tic size, measuring about eight feet from head to foot. 

 He added that he took a leg bone of one of them and 

 placed it by the side of his own leg, in order to compare 

 the length of the two ; the bone of the skeleton extended 

 six inches above his knee. None of these bones could be 

 preserved as they crumbled to dust soon after they were 

 exposed to the atmosphere."* 



We saw a number of Indian graves on the prairie, but 

 as they were modern they offered nothing peculiar. They 

 resemble the graves of white men, but the sod over them is 

 covered with boards or bark, secured to stakes driven into 

 the ground, so as to form a sort of roof over the grave ; at 

 the head, poles were erected for the purpose of supporting 

 flags; a few tatters of one of these still waved over the 

 • Major Long's MS. No. 2, folio 25. 



