THOMAS.] THE HURON-IROQUOIS DISTRICT. 543 



nURIAL M(HTXDS. 



Tliese are foiiud over nearly the whole district, though rare iu some 

 parts. If the term be applied to slight elevations over graves, they may 

 have been once common, but liave been overlooked or obliterated. In 

 many instances, as in Michigan, sand dunes have been mistaken for arti- 

 ficial mounds, especially where they have been chosen for burial. In New 

 York a similar error may often be found, where gravel and sand have 

 taken the form of the tumulus, through purely natural causes. Xoneof 

 the mounds are of great size, and the form is nsually a low and broad 

 round topped cone. 



An exceptional example of the burial mound was described by Mr. 

 T. A. Cheney.' It was in Conewango township, Cattaraugus county, 

 and on the brow of a hill. The account is not perfectly clear, but is 

 here given in Mr. Cheney's own words: 



The form of the tumulus is of intermeiliate character between the ellipse aud the 

 l)iiiallelogr;im; the interior mound, at its base, has a major axis of 65 feet, while 

 tlie minor axis is 61 feet, with an altitude above the first platform or embankment 

 of 10 feet, or an entire elevation of some 13 feet. This erabaukmeut, with an entrance 

 or gateway upon the east side 30 feet in width, has an entire circumference of 

 170 feet. * ' * In ranking an excavation, eight skeletons, buried in a sitting 

 posture and at regular intervals of space, so as to form a circle within the mound, 

 were disinterred. Some slight appearance yet existed to show that framework had 

 inclosed the deadattime of interment. These osteologicalremains were of very large 

 size, but were so much decomposed that tliev mostly crumbled ti> dust. Tlie relics 

 of art here disclosed were also of a peculiar and interesting character — amulets, 

 chisels, etc., of elaborate workmanship, resembling tlic Mexican and Peruvian an- 

 tif|uities. 



There is an evident error in the above outside measurement, which 

 may have been either 370 or 470 feet. Mr. Cheney's observations were 

 usually accurate; aud this work, which consisted of an inclosure and 

 interior mound, may be considered intrusive in this sectiou if exactly 

 described. No other like it has been found in the district.' 



Mounds within large defensive inclosures are rare. One near Cary- 

 ville, Genesee county, New York, was of so marked a character as to 

 give the inclosure the name of the " Bone fort." It was noted by the 

 Eev. Samuel Kirkland in his Jourual as an immense mass of bone.s 

 slightly covered with earth. Other small elevations elsewhere seem to 

 have been simple heaps of refuse, left within the walls for convenience, 

 as in a work in Augusta, Canada,, near the St. Lawrence. Some small 

 interior mounds reported in Michigan, if more than this, may have 

 been dwelling sites. 



Many of these burial mounds are but piles of human bones covered 

 with earth, a common type in western New Y'ork. Others show care- 

 ful arrangement. One, which Squier examined,^ differed internally 

 from others known. It was on Tonawanda island, Niagara river, and 



■ "Ancient Monuments in western New Tork," 13tli Ann. Kept. Reg. TJniv. N. Y., 1860, p. 40, pi. 3. 

 *Thi8 mound la now obliterated. 'Antiq. of New York, p. 97. 



