86 Description of some Sepulchral Pits of Indian Oriyin. 



If I have not yet succeeded in giving a very satisfactory 

 elucidation of the regularity of structure in this part of the 

 Alps, I yet believe that I have made a step in the direction 

 of the truth, by making known an observation which is by no 

 means unimportant in a locality which deserves to be visited, 

 and which, notwithstanding, has not yet been so. 



A Brief Description of some Sepulchral Pits, of Indian origin, 

 lately discovered near Penetanqueshene . By EDWARD W. 

 Bawtree, M.D., Staff Assistant- Surgeon. Communicated 

 by Sir James Macgrioor, Bart, F.R.S, &c., Director- 

 General of the Army Medical Department. (With a Plate.) 



With the exception of a short aiiiclo by Captain Anderson, of the 

 Indian Department, which appeared in the British Colonist News- 

 paper of 24th September 1847, the author of this communication is 

 not aware of the existence of any other on the subject proposed ; his 

 means of reference, however, are hmited. Should any sucli have 

 been previously published, the present paper, it is hoped, if of any 

 interest whatever, will retain that interest by the few additional facts 

 it is supposed to contribute. 



Within the last two years, a quantity of human bones were found 

 in one spot near Barrie, which excited no particular interest at the 

 time ; since that, a pit, in the township of St Vincents, which had 

 attracted attention, was opened, and found to contain an iiimiensc 

 number of huia)an bones, with several copper and brass kettles, and 

 various trinkets and ornaments in familiar use among Indians. This 

 discovery led last autumn to the more accurate examination of a pit 

 of the same description, about seven miles from Penetanqueshene, in 

 the township of Giny. This pit was accidentally noticed about four 

 years ago by a French Canadian, while making sugar in the neigh- 

 bourhood. He was struck by its appearance, and the peculiar sound 

 produced at the bottom, by stamping there ; and, in turning up a 

 few spadefuls of earth he was surprised to find a quantity of human 

 bones. It was more accurately examined in September last, and 

 found to contain, besides a great number of human skeletons, of both 

 sexes and all age:i, twenty -six copper and brass kettles or boilers, 

 three largo conch-shells, pieces of beaver-skin, in tolerable preserva- 

 tion, a fragment of a pipe, a larg iron axe, evidently of French manu- 

 facture, some human hair (that of a woman), a copper bracelet, and 

 a quantity of flat auricular beads, perforated through the centre. 



The form of the pit is circular, with an elevated margin ; it is 

 about fifteen feet in diameter, and, before it was opened, was probably 

 nine feet deep, from the level of its margin to the centre and bottom ; 

 its shape, in one word, funnel-shaped. It is situate on the top of a 

 gentle rise, with a shallow i-avine on the east side, through which, at 



