1825.] near the Falls of Niagara. 123 



Niagara ones, which forms a very conspicuous ornament. Does 

 not an investigation of this subject promise to throw some Hght 

 on the history of the original population of the American conti- 

 nents, and the islands of the Pacific? 



The spot where these remains were found bears every appear- 

 ance of having been an Indian encampment. The ground on 

 the side of the Lake, which is distant about seven miles, seems 

 to have been rendered steep by artificial means ; and Mr. Ror- 

 bach, who first discovered the bones, says, that when the ground 

 is freed from the leaves of trees, which are every where strewed 

 over it in great thickness, that holes resembling the marks of 

 pickets may be seen surrounding a space of several acres. We 

 should hence infer, that those warriors who fought with the 

 tomahawk, and who used shells as musical instruments, and as 

 defensive armour, were not ignorant of the art of war, so far as 

 the construction of an extensive encampment defended by 

 works possessing some pretensions to regular fortification, 

 goes. 



Where the first excavation was made, there can be little 

 doubt that a tumulus had originally been constructed over the 

 bones, as within a short distance of the first opening, four heaps 

 rtsembling tumuh have been opened, and found to contain bones 

 and ornaments of the kind which I have described. 



The people in the neighbourhood have carried away many of 

 the skulls, particularly the entire ones. I, however, succeeded, 

 with the assistance of Mr. Rorbach, in collecting some of the 

 most perfect of the remains, and took measures to insure their 

 peaching Europe in safety, intending them for a scientific friend, 

 from whose knowledge on such subjects, it may be hoped, that 

 interesting results are to be looked for, should he be 

 afforded the opportunity of examining these relics of an ancient 

 and obscure period. 



■ From the side of the hill rises a fountain of the most transpar- 

 ent water, in quantities suflficient to turn the wheel of a mill 

 which is situated at a short distance ; this is the inva- 

 riable attendant of such tumuh, whether they occur in Britain, 

 Scandinavia, or in Asia ; and I could not help regretting that 

 the tumuli of Niagara had not been inspected by some of those 

 literary characters who have exhibited so much learning, and 

 brought to light so much interesting and curious knowledge in 

 their treatises upon the barrows and tumuli of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, as undoubtedly those at Niagara, when taken together, 

 with the remains of a similar character, which Baron Humboldt 

 describes as existing in Mexico, might be the means of throwing 

 light upon a period of the history of the world, where records 

 entirely fail us, and which seems buried in the daikness of the 

 most remote antiquity. 



