544 MOUND EXPLOKATIONS. 



was origiually about 15 feet in Leiglit. At the base appeared to 

 have beeu a circle of stones iierliaps 10 feet in diameter, within which 

 were several small heaps of bones, each comprising three or four skele- 

 tons. The bones are of individuals of all ages and had evidently been 

 deposited after the removal of the flesh. Traces of fire were to be dis- 

 covered upon the stones. Some clappings of flint and broken arrow 

 points, as also some fragments of deer's horns which appeared to have 

 been worked into form, were found among the bones. 



Traces of fire are frequent, and were quite marked in the mound at 

 Greene, Chenango county, New York, which has been so often described. 

 In this there was an intrusive burial, but the lower deposits of bones 

 unarranged are said to have beeu burned. In a mound recently re- 

 moved, on a ridge near the outlet of Onondaga lake, New York, several 

 .skeletons lay side by side in the southwest part. These were much 

 decayed, some crumbUug, and others hardening on exposure to the air. 

 There were no traces of fire upon them when the mound was destroyed 

 in 1S84, and stone imjdements and ornaments were found with them. 

 In opening the center of the mound in 1S80 these were not disturbed, 

 and nothing of importance was then found. There were fragments of 

 flint, broken earthenware, burned human bones, and stones showing 

 the marks of fire. As the material was taken from the ridge and as 

 this had been occupied, it would not follow that the fire had any direct 

 relation to the mound. This was elliptical, about 4 feet high in 1880, 

 and must have been built over a natural or artificial depression, as the 

 original surface was reached at that time at a depth of 7 feet. The 

 most remarkable mounds in this district are those described by Mr. T. 

 C. Wallbridge.' They are mostly on the southern shore of the bay of 

 Quinte, Ontario, Canada, in the township of Ameliasbnrg, and there 

 form a group of one hundred or more distinct tumuli. Generally they 

 occur in pairs of uniform size, and are truncated cones 30 to 50 feet in 

 diameter and about 12 feet high. A shallow basin is found at the top, 

 which may be due to the sinking of the intei-ior. Few were found 

 which had uot been opened. Internally there weremany large stones, 

 and those in the best condition seemed examples of stone burial cists, 

 with a lew human remains. The articles found were mostly of bone. 



STOXK MOUNDS OR HKAPS. 



Since the colonizing of New York the practice of casting stones upon 

 heaps was continued by some of the Indian tribes in the eastern part 

 of that state. In the Livingston Manor Patent, New York Document- 

 ary History,^ mention is made of " heaps of stones which the Indians 

 throw upon one another as they pass by, irom an ancient custom 

 amongst them." In 1753 the Rev. Gideon Ilawley saw this act by his 

 Mohawk guide, in the Schoharie valley, and thought it one of supersti- 

 tion. Other stone heaps have been found within iudosures, and are 



C.iuailiyn .Io\innil. lu'w series, 1860, vol. v., pp. 401M17. ' Vol. :i. p. fi9:i. 



