^"f™eT excavations in HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 65 



of tliein as heavy as a man could lift, piled on until they reached 

 slightly beyond the margiu of the grave on every side and to the top 

 of the mound as it now exists. No relics were found in it. 



A small cairn stood half a mile south of the cemetery on the same 

 level as those just described. 



On the bottom lauds, between the cemetery and the bridge, many 

 village site relics as well as human bones have been picked up after 

 tloods, or when the ground was freshly plowed. 



In making- excavations for the railway along the foot of Hanging 

 rock, 4z miles below llomney, many human bones were unearthed. 

 Such quantities of stone have fallen from the clift' above, however, that 

 it is impossible to ascertain whether there was a mound. According 

 to tradition a great battle was here waged between tlie Catawba and 

 the Delaware. The same claim is made for various points on the 

 Potomac from the mouth of Antietam creek almost to Cumberland, and 

 along South branch from its source to its mouth; ' in every locality, in 

 fact, where a few skeletons have been found. 



An extensive village and cemetery site exists on the Ilerriott farm, 

 opposite and below Hanging rock. Fireplaces are numerous and many 

 skeletons have been exhumed. Besides the ordinary Indian relics are 

 found iron hatchets, glass beads, and ornaments of brass. An Indian 

 town stood at this point when the whites first came into the valley, and 

 the natives continued to occupy it for a number of years after the early 

 settlers had taken up land, as shown by the character of some of the 

 relics found. Persons well versed in the history of the region assert 

 that the Indians occupying this town were a branch of the Seneca. 



There Avere formerly many stone mounds along the foot of the hill 

 back of this village, but all of them have now been removed. Some of 

 them were along- the hillside a few feet above the margin of the level 

 bottom; others were on the level, but nowhere more than oO or CO feet 

 from the foot of the hill. They varied in height from 2 to 8 feet, in 

 diameter from 12 or 15 to 40 or 50 feet, and were composed entirely of 

 stone. All except the smallest ones had a depression at the top as if 

 they had contained a vault or pen of logs whose decay had allowed 

 the rocks to settle. Fragmentary bones were found in many of them 

 lying on the original surface. Very few art relics were found. In one 

 was a pipe with a wolf head carved on it. A cairn on the hillside near 

 the schoolhouse on the Herriott farm contained some decayed bones. 



On the western slope of Mill Creek mountain, on the farm of William 

 Hamilton, directly west of Romncy, is the site of an arrowhead factory. 

 Flint is abundant along the mountain side, and was carried to a knoll 

 near the foot of the sloi)e to be worked. 



Three considerable village sites are located above Romney. One is 

 on Murphy's farm, miles from town; a second on flohn Pancake's 



' Kercheval, History of tho Valley, 1833, pp. 47-50. 

 BULL. W=23 5 



