414 ON SOME ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 
than to admit that the stone and copper axes, pipes, arrow heads, and 
coarse pottery of the same character, and which are everywhere found, 
were made by different tribes. Thus a race possessing a knowledge 
of mound building, in common with very distant tribes, may have 
been dispossessed by the Massassaga Indians, when they came, as 
tradition relates, from the Upper Lakes. But this is mere conjecture, 
and like a!l other theories depending in any manner upon imagination 
or Indian tradition, should be received with caution. 
The theory so commonly held that certain relics of rude art, found 
among tribes who cannot be supposed to have made them, have been 
procured by barter, I think, from what is known of Indian character, 
not to be well founded. Iam inclined to believe that the sculptured 
images, as well as the copper implements, are the fruits of distant wars ; 
the tribe last possessing them have taken the articles by force from 
some more western or civilized people. This argument receives strength 
from the fact that the whole system of earth-works throughout the 
west shows that a terrific struggle was there waged for an existence ; 
but with what result such heroic efforts were made to defend civilized 
communities against overwhelming barbarous hordes, the Cyclopean em- 
bankments of those regions are the only memorial. When we find, 
however, the vestiges of a wide-spread race, or monuments that point 
to one common idea, intermingled with works of a superior order, and 
meet with evidences of a certain civilization in parts equally distant, 
perhaps the fruit of plunder, we may form some conception of the 
turmoil that once agitated this continent. 
A further examination of the mounds on the Bay of Quinté, under- 
taken in the month of August last, in company with Henry Cawthra, 
Esq., of Toronto, has led to the discovery in them of human remains 
and objects of curiosity and art. These remains clearly point out the 
purpose for which the works in question were erected, and prove 
them to belong to the class of sepulchral mounds, such as the obser- 
vations of Drake, Squier, Schoolcraft, and many other writers, show 
to exist over a very wide range of country. 
A brief description of the work in which the remains were found, 
with the aid of the accompanying lithographic plates, prepared from 
accurate sketchings taken at the time by Mr. Cawthra, will enable 
the reader at once to understand the nature of all the mounds m the 
Bay of Quinté region. 
