igio.] Recent Arch^ological Investigations in Ontario. 3 



continuous irregularly shaped mound are of fairly frequent occurrence, 

 and here in this Peterboro group there is also an example of this kind 

 in a double mound situate immediately south of the large one. Some of 

 the western ones are of such shapes that, even if regarded as unfinished, 

 they certainly were never meant to represent serpents. This, however, 

 cannot be said of the large Peterboro mound in question. Although 

 irregular, and in length relatively short, its shape is such that it might 

 be regarded as the beginning of an unfinished serpent. 



Having secured the assistance of five men, I made four excavations, 

 each being ten feet in width and from ten to fourteen feet in length. Three 

 of these excavations (Nos. i, 2 and 4) were made near the oak tree in the 

 highest and widest part of the mound. The remaining excavation (No. 3) 

 was near the eastern extremity of the mound, the part termed the head 

 of the serpent. 



Excavation No. i. 



In the excavation designated number one there were three deposits 

 of broken human bones, being portions of four skeletons. Probably the 

 remainder of the skeletons had been previously removed by other persons. 

 There were no manufactured articles found here with the exception of a 

 little bit of decorated pottery. No stones were found ; but, it is possible 

 they may have been removed by others who had disturbed the place years 

 before. 



Excavation No. 2. 



Excavation number two, which was made near the larger oak tree, 

 yielded fifty large stone boulders, ten human skeletons, a few little pieces 

 of burnt bone, a small piece of a pottery vessel, and upwards of three hun- 

 dred and fifty marine shell beads of three well-known genera of shells, 

 constituting four varieties of ornaments as seen in plates II. and III. The 

 boulders were together in a horizontal layer beneath more than two feet 

 in depth of soil. As many of them were from eighteen inches to two feet in 

 thickness the skeletons and relics under them were at a distance of four or 

 five feet from the top of the mound. The skeletons, especially the skulls, 

 were very much broken, evidently by the weight of the stones, as evidenced 

 by their position, and the fact that the fractures showed great age. The 

 pottery was a piece of the rim of a large vessel showing incised decoration. 



Five of the shell beads are Olive shells, Oliva literata, (pi. II, Fig. 3), 

 each having the top of its spire ground down so as to make an opening 

 for the passage of a string. These udivalve shells occur in tropical waters, 

 and were probably procured by trade from the vicinity of Florida. They 



