16 



THE EXCAVATION. 



Two former attempts had been made to open this mound. 

 One of these had been made in the top, and the large skull 

 before you was then obtained. A more extensive effort was 

 that made in 1883, by Mr. E. McColl, Indian agent, Mr. 

 Crowe, H. B. officer of Fort Frances, and a party of men. 

 Their plan was to run a tunnel from north to south through 

 the base of the mound. They had penetrated some ten or 

 fifteen feet, found some articles of interest, and had then given 

 up the undertaking. Having employed a number of men, 

 settlers in the neighborhood, I determined to continue the 

 tunnel for a certain distance through the mound, all the way 

 if indications were favorable, and then to pierce the mound 

 from the top. The men in two parties went industriously to 

 work on the opposite sides, working toward each other, making 

 a tunnel about eight feet in diameter. The earth though orig- 

 inally soft soil had become so hard that it was necessary to use 

 a pick axe to loosen it for the spade. A number of skeletons 

 were found on the south side, but all I should say within ten 

 feet from the original surface of the mound. As we pene- 

 trated the interior fewer remains were continually found. The 

 earth gave many indications of having been burnt. At one 

 point the pick-axe sank ten inches into the hard wall. This 

 was about fifteen feet from the outside. The excavator then 

 dug out with his hand from a horizontal pocket in the earth 

 eight or ten inches wide and eighteen or twenty inches deep, 

 a quantity of soft brown dust, and a piece of bone some four 

 inches long, a part of a human forearm bone. This pocket 

 was plainly the original resting place of a skeleton, probably 

 in a sitting posture. As deeper penetration was made brown 

 earthy spots without a trace of bone remaining were come 

 upon. The excavation on the south side was continued for 

 thirty feet into the mound, but at this stage it was evident that 

 bones, nottery, etc., had been so long interred that they were 

 reduced to dust. No hope seemed to remain now of finding 

 objects of interest in this direction, and so with about forty feet 

 yet wanting to complete the tunnel, the search was transferred 

 to the top of the mound. 



THE UPPER CUT. 



Beginning on the crest of the mound, the trees were re- 

 moved over a considerable space, and though some trouble was 

 found from the presence of the roots of the growing trees, yet 

 three or four feet from the surface human bones and skeletons 



