546 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



northernmost known in Canada, east of the Great lakes, but their occur- 

 rence woukl not be surprising farther north in the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence. The New York ossuaries, or bone pits, present no unusual 

 features, but are usually reported as instances of " promiscuous " or 

 confused burial. By this is inteuded interment without respect to the 

 age of the i)erson or position of the bones, as though these had been 

 gathered without care and thrown into a common mass. This may 

 have been done in some cases, but the practiife of arranging tlie bones 

 in bundles would give the impression of confusion to the casual observer. 

 In these the long bones were placed together, with the skull at one end, 

 and some of the smaller bones were often lacking. If the bundles were 

 buried singly, they might be taliea for sitting or crouching ligures. 



In some graves recently opened near Cayuga lake, iSTew York, suc- 

 cessive tiers of skeletons were found, arranged horizontally, the layers 

 being separated by a thin stratum of earth. In one pit there were four 

 tiers, with twenty skeletons. The others had less. This was near 

 Union Springs. Such careftil arrangement seems rare. Relics were 

 found in every pit, but not with each skeleton, and it may be added 

 that articles in New York aboriginal graves are usually perfect. 



Some ossuaries may be due to hasty burial, as after a severe battle. 

 A case in point is recorded in the second Bsopus war of 1063.' The 

 Dutch " came to the fort of the Esopus Indians # * * and there 

 found five large pits into which they had cast their dead. The wolves 

 had rooted up and devoured some of them. Lower down on the hill 

 were four other pits, full of dead Indians." The frequent practice of 

 giving final burial only when the flesh was removed from the bones may 

 have originated in guarding against wild beasts. 



Usually .skeletons in these pits lie horizontally. Mr. T. A. Cheney ^ 

 describes three pits, or ossuaries, in Terry township, Chautauqua 

 county, in which a diflereut arrangement was fonud. Within and 

 about an elliptical inclosure skeletons were found buried in a horizimtal 

 position. Fifty rods away were three rectangular pits 9 feet in diam- 

 eter and shghtly depressed. In these were many skeletons in a sitting 

 posture. In an ossuary at the village of Barrie, Simcoe county, On- 

 tario, nmny skulls had arrows in the forehead, and were buried face 

 downward. 



There seems, therefore, to have been no settled plan of burial of this 

 kind, and taste, convenience, or time produced many variations in the 

 internal arrangement. In most cases there are no remaining .signs of 

 protection, but in one described by Turner ^ piles of sandstone were 

 placed over the bones. Another instance occurred in Jefl'erson county, 

 New York, and is described by Sijuier.^ Both of these seem interme- 

 diate between the ossuary and the stone heap or mound. 



' N. Y. Doc. Hist., vol. i, p. 80. 



2 Thirteenth Ann. Rep. of the Regents of tlie University of the .State of New Yorl4, 1880, ii.45. 



3 Holland Purchase, p. 27. 



^Antiquities of the state of New York, p. 29. 



