TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE 



RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN ONTARIO. 



By Henry Montgomery, M.A., Ph.D., F.E.S.A. 



{Read igth February, 1910) 



There is a series of ancient artificial earthworks or mounds in the 

 township of Otonabee, Peterboro County, Ontario, which to some extent 

 I have recently investigated. At the request of the late Mr. Strickland 

 of Peterboro, a former owner of the property, Mr. David Boyle in 1896 

 examined these mounds and afterwards published the results of that 

 examination. 



The following quotation is from pages 23 and 24 of Mr. Boyle's 

 Report, published in 1897: — "Selecting the highest point of the mound 

 left undisturbed, seventy feet from the end of the tail, I had a cut made 

 five feet wide, extending from the north side to the middle of the bank, 

 which is here twenty-four feet across the base, simply to examine the 

 interior nature of the structure, the surface of which was here somewhat 

 stony. Human bones were exposed within two feet of the surface, but 

 like those of the egg-mound, all much decayed. Some of the boulders 

 taken from this cut were all that a man could lift, but many of them did 

 not weigh more than from ten to thirty pounds each. The placing of the 

 earth was manifestly done by hand, layers and patches of dark soil being 

 mingled with yellow clay; beyond this there was nothing to indicate 

 man's agency, but the proof yielded was ample. A slight examination 



