570 MONUMENTAL REMAINS. 



grounds of the Rivanna, about two miles above its principal fork, 

 and opposite to some hills, on which had been an Indian town, ft 

 was of a spheroidical form, of about 40 feet diameter, at the 1; 

 and hud been of about 13 feet altitude, though now reduced by 

 the plough to seven and a half, having been under cultivation 

 about a dozen years. Before this it .was covered with trees of 12 

 inches diameter, and round the base was an excavation of five feet 

 depth and width, from whence the earth had been taken of which 

 the hillock was formed. I first dug superficially in several parts 

 of it, and came to collections of human bones, at different depths, 

 from six inches to three feet below the surface. These were lying 

 in the utmost confusion, some vertical, some oblique, some hori- 

 zontal, and directed to every point of the compass, entangled, and 

 lield together in clusters by the earth. Bones of the most distant 

 parts were found together ; as, for instance, the small bones of 

 the foot in the hollow of the skull, many skulls would sometimes 

 be in contact, lying on the face, on the side, on the back, top or 

 bottom, so as on the whole to give the idea of bones emptied pro- 

 miscuously from a bag or basket, and covered over with earth, 

 without any attention to their order. The bones of which the 

 greatest numbers remained, were skulls, jaw-bones, teeth, the 

 bones of the arms, the thighs, legs, feet, and hands. A few ribs 

 remained, some vertebrae of the neck and spine, without their 

 processes, and one instance only of the bone which serves as a 

 base to the vertebral column. The skulls were so tender, that 

 they generally fell to pieces on being touched. The other bones 

 were stronger. There were some teeth which were judged to be 

 smaller than those of an adult: a skull which, on a slight view, 

 appeared to be that of an infant, but it fell to pieces on being taken 

 out, so as to prevent satisfactory examination; a rib, and a fragment 

 of the under-jaw of a person about half-grown; another rib of an 

 infant; and part of the jaw of a child, which had not yet cut its 

 teeth. The last furnishing the most decisive proof of the burial 

 of the children here, I was particular in my attention to it. It 

 was part of the right half of the under.jaw. The processes by 

 which it was articulated to the temporal bones were entire ; and 

 the bone itself firm to where it had been broken off, which, as 

 nearly as I could judge, was about the place of the eye tooth. Its 

 upper edge, wherein would have been the sockets of the teeth, was 

 perfectly smooth. Measuring it with that of an adult, by placing 

 their hinder processes together, its broken end extended to the 



