PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 93 



Notes on Skulls taken from a Phk-hisioi^k Fori in Kfnt County. 

 By Mr. Archibald Blue. 



( Hiad 2ist Afiril, i(/.>o. ) 



The Indian Fort on lot 59 north of Talbot Road, \w the Township of 

 Orford, is situated at the springs which are the source of Clear Creek, two- 

 and-a-half miles from the shore of Lake Erie and a mile from the decaye<l 

 hamlet of Clearville. Until twenty years ago the Fort stood in the midst 

 of a dense forest of beech and maple, white oak and black walnut, and there 

 were trees of large size growing on the walls and within the enclosure. 

 The site was known to the early settlers, but none among them were archieologi- 

 cally inclined, and the ground was not disturbed by them. It used to be said, 

 however, and I think it is true, that one of my old schoolmasters, Galbraith the 

 Phrenologist, was a frequent visitor there, and that he dug up some skulls 

 to help in his studies. It was while he was employed as teacher in our 

 school, in the years 1848-49-50, that he applied his spare hours to ac((uiriug 

 a knowledge of Phrenology, and from our school he went out on his long 

 career of lecturer on the subject in this Province and elsewhere. 



But the first serious attempt to explore the Fort was made eleven years 

 ago by Mr. David Boyle, our archreologist, who succeeded in getting six skulls 

 which are now in the Museum of the Education Department. ]Mr. Boyle made 

 measurements of the Fort, and a sketch and description of it together with 

 an account of his exploration was printed in the Proceedings of this Institute 

 for 1888-89.* In Mr. Boyle's opinion the graves exhumed by him did not 

 probably belong to the people who built the walls, but to subsequent posses- 

 sors of the ground who had lost all knowledge of its former occupancy. f 

 He suspects, indeed, that thei-e were three successive occupations by different 

 tribes separated by wide periods of time. The skulls secured by him were 

 discovered in an ossuary on the highest i)laue within the walls, and had 

 been interred with the limb bones only. 



These Notes lend confirmation to Mr. Boyle's views, and being mainly a 

 transcription of the entry in my notebook made upon the ground I can vouch 

 for their accuracy. 



It was on the 14th of August, 1889, about a month after the explorations 

 made by Mr. Boyle, that I first saw the Fort, although I had known of it 

 from childhood. I was accompanied by Dr. P. H. Bryce of tiiis city and my 

 brother, the late John Blue, jr., of Orford. The trees had been cut down and 

 the timber removed at that time, but most of the stumps were yet fresh and 

 showed that a number of the trees were of large size. In all other respects 

 the site was practically unchanged. The walls or embankments of the Fort 

 were in an excellent state of preservation, and ol)long or nearly oval in form. 

 As originallv constructed they appear to have followed upon the north, west 

 and south sides the edge of the bank of the creek and one of its small 

 tributaries, and there are cross-walls from north to south which divide the 

 enclosure into three unequal areas, two of which occupy benches of the 

 creek, while the third is on the tableland of the country. Where intact, the 

 walls are about ten feet wide at the base, three to four feet high, and about 

 five hundred yards in the outer circumference. At the north-east angle there 

 is a breach in the wall about twenty-five feet long, which may have been 

 an opening to the midden-heap, and at the north-west angle is a low bit ot 

 wall about seventy-five feet long. There is a tliird opening midway m the 



' Annual Report of the Can. Inst., Session 1888-9, PP- >.S-'S. 

 f Notes on Primitive Man in Ontario, 1895, p. 20. 



