ii AMERICAN MUSEUMS 55 



tery, and other articles. They are found on a plateau 

 which is covered with a remnant of the virgin forest. 

 There is a surface deposit of twelve to eighteen inches of 

 leaf-mould, below which is hard clay. These pits are 

 found to be circular in form, from three to four feet in 

 diameter, and from four to seven feet deep. At the bottom 

 there is often a small circular excavation, either in the 

 centre or at one side. They are usually filled with ashes, 

 in more or less defined layers, the bottom portion being 

 very fine grey ashes, while the upper part may be more 

 or less mixed with gravel or sand, with occasianal layers 

 of charcoal. Throughout the whole mass of ashes and 

 sand, from the top of the pit to the bottom, are bones of 

 fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Those of the larger 

 species of mammalia, such as the elk, deer, and bear, are 

 generally broken, and appear to have been those of animals 

 used for food. Half a bushel of such bones are sometimes 

 taken out of one pit. Shells of many species of Unio are 

 also found. There is also much broken pottery, but 

 rarely any entire vessels. Numbers of implements of 

 bone or horn are found, some of large size and apparently 

 used for digging, as well as awls, beads, harpoon points, 

 and small whistles. Arrow points, drills, scrapers, and 

 other stone instruments are common, with some polished 

 celts and rough hammer-heads. Stone pipes and copper 

 beads and finger-rings are also found. In some of the pits 

 a considerable quantity of charred corn has been found, 

 together with nuts and other articles of food, and in one 

 case only a human skeleton was found at the bottom of a 

 pit. A considerable area, including that occupied by the 

 pits, seems to have been used as a cemetery, both before 

 and since they were constructed. A great number of 

 skeletons are found buried just beneath the layer of leaf 

 mould, and in some cases these skeletons lie across a pit, 

 while in others skeletons already buried have been evi- 

 dently disturbed by digging the pit. 



In the same district, but at a little higher elevation, 

 are a number of earth-circles, from forty-three to fifty- 

 eight feet in diameter, which prove to be sites of houses, 

 with a central fire-place of clay, and with implements and 



