78 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bulu 71] 



tioned in this early nnrrative is that in Avhieh reference is made to 

 the ric-hness of the material deposited in the pit with the remains, but 

 the irreator part was of a perishable nature and should this pit be 

 encountered at the present day its contents would probably resemble 

 those of the ossuary discovered near Gasport in 1909. 



Other ofreat burial places, similar to that discovered near Gasport, 

 have been encountered in the same county, 10 miles or more south 

 of Lake Ontario, on the Tuscarora Reservation. On the northern 

 border of the reservation stood an ancient inclosure, and " a little 

 over half a mile west of the inclosure," and about 20 rods distant 

 from the edge of the bluff upon which it stood, " was a large bone 

 pit. It was marked l)y a low conical elevation, not over a foot and a 

 half high and 27 feet in diameter. Directly in the center was a 

 slight depression in which lay a large flat stone with a number of 

 similar stones under and around it. At the depth of 18 inches the 

 bones seemed to have been disturbed. Among them y\'ns a Canadian 

 penny. This, Mount Pleasant (the Tuscarora chief) thought, may 

 have been dropped in there by a missionary who, thirty years 

 before, had found on the reservation a skull with an arrowhead 

 sticking in it ; or by some Indian, for it is, or was, an Indian 

 custom to do this where bones have been disturbed, by way of 

 paying for the disturbance or for some article taken from the 

 grave. The l)ones seemed to have belonged to both sexes and were 

 thrown in without order; they were, however, in a good state of 

 preservation. Three copper rings were found near finger bones. 

 The roots of trees that had stood above the pit made digging quite 

 difficult; yet sixty skulls were brought to the surface, and it is quite 

 likely that the pit contained as many as a hundred skeletons. The 

 longest diameter of the pit was 9 feet; its depth 5 feet. There were 

 no indications on the skulls of death from bullet wounds. , Two 

 similar elevations, one 18 or 20 feet, the other 10 rods, directl}'^ east 

 of this pit, were opened sufficiently to show that they were burial 

 places of a similar character. Like the first, these contained flat 

 stones, lying irregularly near the top. Charcoal occurred in small 

 pieces in all. Indian implements and ornaments, and several Revo- 

 lutionary relics, were found in the adjoining field." (Thomas, (1), 

 pp. 512-513.) 



Another ossuary, evidently (juite similar to the one dei5cribed by 

 Pere Le Jeune, was discovered in 1824, some 6 miles west of Lock- 

 port, in Niagara County. " The top of the pit was covered with 

 small slabs of Medina sandstone, and was 24 feet square by 4J in 

 depth, the planes agreeing with the four cardinal points. It w^as 

 filled with human bones of both sexes and all ages. ... In one 

 skull, two flint arrow heads were found, and many had the ap- 



