THOMAS.) NEW YORK. 513 



last described and about 20 rods from the edge of the same bluff, was a 

 large bone pit. It was marked by 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 IS inches the 

 bones seemed to have been disturbed. Among them was a Canadian 

 penny. This, Mount Pleasant thought, may have been dropped in 

 there by a missionary who, thirty years before, had found on the reser- 

 vation 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 dis- 

 turbed, by way of paying for the disturbance or for some article taken 

 from the grave. The bones seemed to have belonged to both sexes and 

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

 preservation. Three copper rings were found near finger bones. The 

 roots of trees that had stood above the pit made digging quite dii5flcult; 

 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 diam- 

 eter of the pit was 9 feet; its depth o 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, directly 

 east of this i)it, 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 Revolutionary 

 relics, were found in the adjoining field. 



About one-fourth of a mile directly west of the inclosure, close to the 

 brow of the bluff overlooking the ridge road and on land adjoining 

 the reservation on the north, are one hundred and eighteen small pits, 

 which seem to be artificial. They extend oO or 60 rods parallel with 

 the edge of the bluff', which here is little more than 100 feet from the 

 level land below. They run back 10 or 15 I'ods, are mostly uniform 

 in shape and size, and are from 1 foot to 2^ feet deep, and average 3 

 feet in diameter, one being 5 feet. Six of them extend in a straight 

 line for 10 rods parallel to the edge of the bluff'. 



WYOMING COUNTY. 



INCLOSURE ON THE DUNN FARM. 



On the farm of John Dunn, on the west bank of the Genesee river, 

 4i miles above Portage, is a large embankment on the summit of a 

 large mound-like liill 125 feet high. The embankment, shown in 

 Fig. 335, follows the brow of the liill except on the west, where the 

 hill forms a narrow spur, extending 57 feet beyond the inclosure 

 on the same level, and at the northeast, where a point of the hill is 

 cut off' by the embankment. At these places the bank is higher 

 and the ditch deeper than at other points, \he former being 5^ feet on 

 12 ETH 33 



