THE STONE AGE IN OREGON. 531 



shells of the Unio, so common in these pits, may have been mounted on handles 

 and used as scoops. Perforators of bone are common ; long, slender needles of 

 bone are not rare, while two or three bone comb-like ornaments, having three or 

 four teeth, have been found in the pits. 



"Fragments of pottery are plentiful in the ash-pits, but only three perfect 

 dishes have been found in them. Stone implements are also very common, in- 

 cluding hammer stones, celts, scrapers, arrowheads and rude knives. 



" Not far from the cemetery is a large earth mound, and near by the ceme- 

 tery are nine earth-circles, which had probably never been disturbed since their 

 formation. These earth circles are from forty to sixty feet in diameter, and are 

 surrounded by embankments averaging two feet high and nine feet wide, which 

 were probably formed by the decay of the walls of the houses of the people form- 

 ly living here. Now the embankments are covered with verdure. Within the 

 circle the accumulated soil is from seventeen to twenty inches in depth, and on 

 removing this we come upon the compact clay with a central pile of ashes over 

 burnt clay. Fragments of pottery were found near the ashes in great number, of 

 a similar character to those in the cemetery. The singular perforated Unio shells 

 also occur within the circles, and stone implements. Pieces of cannel coal from 

 which jet ornaments were probably cut were also found. These are some of the 

 signs of use and habitation which leave, I think, no reason to doubt that the 

 earth-circles are the sites of houses. 



" For all that has been said before on the subject of this ancient burial spot, 

 I refer you to the journey of the Madisonville Literary and Scientific Society ; to 

 the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History Vol. XXI, May i8, i88r, 

 and to the Harvard Bulletin, 1881." 



THE STONE AGE IN OREGON. 



There is a little mine of antiquities of the most interesting kind upon the 

 point of land at the junction of the Columbia and Umatilla Rivers. The ancient 

 tribes doubtless made this stern and sterile river bank a place of sepulture for 

 their dead, and the Umatillas more recently have also buried their dead in the 

 same sandy cemetery. Many interesting curiosities from those old, forgotten 

 tribes have been discovered by the casual seekers, and doubtless many of equal 

 interest and value await the more thorough antiquary who will search patiently 

 and systematically the ancient " memloose illahee." 



In a few minutes' search at random along the shore of the Columbia, I have 

 found a half dozen relics of the prehistoric Americans of this locality. Searching 

 among the beautiful polished stones along the bank at the east of the Umatilla and 

 south of the Columbia for suitable stones to be decorated with the typical Mount 

 Hood, to grace a writing table or throw at caterwauling felines, I picked up a 

 stone which was remarkably perfect in shape — a perfect circle, polished smoothly, 

 and only marred by a hole through its rim. I was about to " skip it" into the 



