seen to be pure nonsense, as so many of the guesses are of 

 hasty disciples of science. 



The stones were next removed, and under the centre of 

 them, two feet below them, and some four feet and a half 

 from the surface of the mound an excavator struck directly 

 on the top of a skull. The earth was carefully removed from 

 about it and this proved to be a skeleton in an erect sitting 

 posture, the arm-bones on each side of the skull, and the 

 bones of the legs drawn up, and the knees nearly on a level 

 with the face. The skeleton had plainb- never been disturbed, 

 a matter secured by the thirty flat stones lying like a solid 

 cover above the tomb. No traces of swathing around were 

 found, the bones being imbedded in the soil of the mound. 

 The erect, well-postured skeleton, so carefully protected by 

 the flat stone covering, dispelled any suggestion of the skele- 

 ton having been entombed by accident. The skull was taken 

 out with great care, but was in a very different state of pre- 

 servation from those found in the upper interments. It was 

 of a brownish colour, loose in texture, breaking at the touch, 

 and was long and narrow in shaoe. The skeleton was per- 

 fect so far as the larger bones are concerned. The only relics 

 or objects of interest were found on the right side of the 

 skeleton, and on the floor of the burying-place. These con- 

 sisted of a simple ornament of shell, r—>arently that of a 

 common unio, somewhat squared and pierced by two circular 

 holes placed symmetrically ; and some fifteen small round 

 shells three-quarters of an inch in diameter, seemingly of a 

 species of natica. The ornament was plainly a necklace. 

 The bones seemed to be those of a female, and the presence of 

 . the ornament with the absence of all weapons confirmed this 

 view. 



There had sat in loneliness, for how many centuries who 

 can say, and of what race or nation who can tell, the tenant 

 of the mound, undisturbed by the ravenous beast unable to 

 penetrate the stony covering, untouched by the ruthless hands 

 of the mere curiosity-hunter, till the votaries of science, 

 with reverent soirit and seeking for knowledge, had come to 

 discover the secrets of the tomb. 



Nearer to the brink than the skeleton just described so 

 securely protected by the layers of stone, another skeleton 

 had been found on the low level of the base of the mound. 

 It was lying near the line of excavation made by those persons 

 referred to who, from mere curiosity, had cut into the mound. 

 Stones of the same kind as those covering the upright skele- 

 ton were found with this. The remains were seemingly in a 



