418 APPENDIX. 



make about five feet. Beneath these are successive stra-* 

 ta of the same kind to the bottom of the well, which is 

 about twenty feet from the surface. At the bottom of the 

 well, in the coarse gravel, and in a spring or rather sub- 

 terranean brook, there was found a piece of (apparently) 

 bass wood, between two and three feet long, and two OF 

 three inches in diameter. It was evidently a limb of a 

 trunk which is now buried in the gravel and pebbles be- 

 low its direction was perpendicular, and its texture so 

 little impaired, that it was with difficulty broken off. 

 Lobster-shells, cockle-shells, and clam-shells, of the same 

 appearance are found this depth from the surface, as are 

 now found on the lake-shore. My informant describes 

 the remains of a well-built fort, with its trench and mound, 

 which has never been examined, but which can be given 

 you at another time if it be of any importance to you : as 

 also the huge human bones, which have been discovered, 

 with some articles of stone, lead, and sometimes brass, 

 buried with them. 



In support of the above, it is added, that all these 

 monuments are found either on or always south of the 

 south ridge. This is sufficient proof that these forti- 

 fications were all built before the recession of the wa- 

 ters of the lake ta the north. All these bones are 

 found only on or south of the ridge. The land is higher 

 on the south ridge than for a considerable distance to the 

 south of it. The waters once inundated the land for 

 many miles , to the south; but probably by the constant 

 breaking of the surf of the lake in the shallow waters, 

 this south ridge was formed. When the surface of the 

 lake Avas lowered, (which probably was occasioned by 

 the breaking away of the earth at Niagara 3 ) the creeks 

 broke through the mound of sand or gravel, and thus be- 

 gan their present beds. The north ridge does not seem to 



