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the walls of the fort might answer as covers from which 

 to fire on an opposing force beyond the walls, and the six 

 pits near the eastern indenture, in front of three of which 

 there are traces of two small earth walls, and .the two 

 commanding the entrance of the fort, would strengthen 

 this view of the use of those near the embankment. 



In many of the ancient fortifications that have been 

 described by Mr. Squier and others, pits have been noticed, 

 but they have been only very few in number and have 

 been considered as plates for the storage of food artd 

 water. The great number in this small earthwork, with 

 the finding that one at least was used for the purpose 

 of cooking and eating food, is evidence that they were for 

 some other purpose here, though some of the smaller ones 

 may have answered for storehouses. 



The five small mounds were situated in various parts of 

 the enclosure. The largest (G) was nearly fifty feet in 

 diameter and was probably originally not over ten feet in 

 height. It had been very nearly dug away in places, but 

 about one-fifth of the lower portion had not been disturbed. 

 From this was exhumed one nearly perfect human skeleton 

 and parts of several others that had been left by former 

 excavators. This mound also contained several bones of 

 animals, principally of deer, bear, opossum ancf turtles ; 

 fragments of pottery, one arrowhead, a few flint chips, 

 and a number of thick shells of unios, two of which had 

 been bored near the hinge. This mound has yielded a 

 number of human bones to the industry of Dr. H. Frank 

 Harper who has furnished a description of them which 

 will be included in an article to appear in the Naturalist. 



The second mound (7) which was partly opened, was 



some twenty-five feet in diameter and a few feet in height, 



though probably once much higher. In this a number 



of bones of deer and other animals were found, several 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN. ni 20 



