THE MOUND BUILDERS IN CANADA. 135 



They are not in the form of any particular design. A peculiarity in 

 the construction of this mound was a double layer of limestone flags, 

 separated by a few inches of burnt earth, which was encountered 

 about half way down from the apex, and covering the remains of the 

 original interment at the base. In the vicinity of these mounds, 

 which were situated on a ridge about 500 yai'ds back from the Red 

 River, he found an old camp site, with quantities of " Kitchen-mid- 

 den," including fragments of pottery, shell and stone heads, partially 

 woi'ked and completely formed arrow heads and scrapers, hammering 

 stones, two stone axes, roughly formed, beaver, bufialo and deer 

 bones, etc. The markings on the pottery were no doubt made by in- 

 dentation, though in cases the finger-nail mai'ks are discernible. The 

 designs consist of combinations of lines and dots or holes. On com- 

 paring the design on one rim fragment taken from the river bank 

 with that on a complete cup taken from a mound within the limits 

 of the city of St Paul, Minnesota, I find that they are almost alike. 

 The materials used in making the pottery were evidently clay, with 

 pulverised shells and decomposed granite, all of which are to be had 

 in abundance in the immediate neighbourhood. A ridge of limestone 

 tapped with drift gravel and boulders here crosses the Red River and 

 supplied raw material for the manufacture of flint implements and 

 weapons. I am unable to learn that any article of European manu- 

 facture has been found in the Manitoba mounds. What is strange 

 also is the fact that no article of copper has come to light from these 

 mounds, though, at a distance of 200 miles eastward, on the Rainy 

 River, where a number of mounds have been opened, a majority of 

 the articles found are of that metal, which was probably obtained at 

 Lake Superior, as a direct canoe route from Rainy River leads to op- 

 posite Isle Royale where many ancient copper mines have been found. 

 Over 20 mounds have been identified on the banks of the Rainy 

 River, part of them being in the territoiy of the United States, the 

 river here forming the boundary line between it and Canada. One 

 mound situated at the junction of a southern feeder with the Rainy 

 River is fully 45 feet in height and most likely the lai-gest of the 

 whole mound system. It has been dug into in many places and the 

 large number of relics taken out and cai'ried away and scattered from 

 one end of the country to the other. One mound at the head of 

 Rainy River contained the remains of a structure of logs, about 8 

 feet square, which showed the action of fire. It had evidently sur- 



