lo Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. IX. 



measured, would afford proof of the lapse of nearly two hundred years, 

 and we have no means of knowing how many trees may have grown up 

 on the summit of this mound, and have died, decayed and wholly disap- 

 peared previous to the present ones. There is no evidence of contact 

 with the white people ; and it could not have been erected within historic 

 times. The mound stands on high and rapidly sloping ground. Hence 

 no water would be likely to penetrate it. All rain and snow would soon 

 disappear from it and the ground immediately surrounding it. Conse- 

 quently, decomposition of its organic contents must have been very slow 

 indeed. Yet, I found them in an unusually advanced state of decom- 

 position when compared with those of many other mounds which have 

 been excavated elsewhere, and also when compared with the remains of 

 the Hurons which were buried in ossuaries under less favorable conditions 

 nearly three centuries ago. It may, perhaps, be safe to place the date 

 at about the tenth century, or about five hundred years previous to the 

 arrival of Columbus at the shores of America. 



