BUSHNELL] jSTATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 79 



pearance of having been fractured and cleft open, by a sudden blow. 

 They were piled in regular layers, but with no regard to size or 

 sex. Pieces of pottery were picked up in the pit, and had also 

 been ploughed up in the field adjacent." The finding of "some 

 metal tools with a French stamp " prove the later burials to have 

 been of comparatively recent origin. (Schoolcraft, (1), pp. 217- 

 218.) 



In the adjoining county of Erie, "upon a sandy, slightly elevated 

 peninsula, which projects into a low tangled swamp," about 1^ 

 miles southwest of Clarence Hollow, stood a small, irregular in- 

 closure. Human remains were discovered wdien plowing the neigh- 

 boring heights. About 1 mile to the eastward of the inclosure, oc- 

 cupying a dry, sandy spot, was an extensive ossuary, estimated 

 to have contained 400 skeletons, " heaped promiscuously together. 

 They Avere of individuals of every age and sex. In the same field 

 are found a great variety of Indian relics, also brass cap and belt 

 plates, and other remains of European origin." Near this point was 

 discovered, " a year or two since, a skeleton surrounded by a quan- 

 tity of rude ornaments. It had been placed in a cleft of the rock, 

 the mouth of which was covered by a large flint stone." (Squier, 

 (l),p. 56.) 



Many other references to great communal burials, similar to 

 those already described, could be quoted. All, however, seem to 

 have been quite alike in appearance, the principal difference at 

 the present time being in their size. When constructed some were 

 undoubtedly more richly lined with robes of beaver skins and other 

 furs than others, and the number and variety of objects deposited 

 w^ith the dead naturally varied. But as the greater proportion of 

 the material placed in the pits with the remains was of a perishable 

 nature all this has now disappeared, leaving only the fragmentary 

 decomposed bones, which in turn will soon vanish, and little will 

 remain to indicate the great communal burial places. 



A note in Graham's Magazine, January, 1853, page 102, may refer 

 to the discovery of an ossuary, similar to those already described, 

 but if so it was not recognized as such. The note stated that " Work- 

 men on the line of the New York, Corning, and Buffalo Rail Eoad, 

 on the east side of the Genesee River, and about fifteen rods from 

 the water's edge, while cutting through a sand-bank, have exhumed 

 many human skeletons, piled one above another, with every sign 

 of a hasty military burial. . . . These discoveries strengthen a be- 

 lief long entertained, that in 1687 the Marquis de Nouvelle fought 

 his famous battle with the Senecas at or near the burial place men- 

 tioned, that on the banks of the Genesee, within the limits of Avon, 

 Frank and Red Man closed in mortal death-struggle." This would 



