CHAPTER IV. 



MOUNDS, BONE-HEAPS, ETC. 



Various references to mounds or tumuli, resembling those found in the Valley 

 of the Mississippi, have been made in the preceding pages. These mounds are 

 far from numerous, and hardly deserve a separate notice. It is nevertheless an 

 interesting fact to know that isolated examples occur, in situations where it is clear 

 no dependence exists between them and the grand system of earth-works of the 

 Western States. It serves to sustain the conclusion that the savage Indian tribes 

 occasionally constructed mounds ; which are however rather to be considered as 

 accidents than the results of a general practice. The purposes of the mounds of 

 New York, so far as can be determined, seem uniformly to have been those of 

 sepulture. They generally occur upon commanding or remarkable positions. 

 Most of them have been excavated, under the impulse of an idle curiosity, or have 

 had their contents scattered by " money-diggers," a ghostly race, of which, singu- 

 larly enough, even at this day, representatives may be found in almost every village. 

 I was fortunate enough to discover one upon Tonawanda Island, in Niagara River, 

 which had escaped their midnight attentions. It was originally about fifteen feet 

 in height. At the base appeared to have been a circle of stones, perhaps ten feet 

 in diameter, within which were several small heaps of bones, each comprising three 

 or four skeletons. The bones are of individuals of all ages, and had evidently been 

 deposited after the removal of the flesh. Traces of fire were to be discovered 

 upon the stones. Some chippings of flint and broken arrow-points, as also some 

 fragments of deers' horns, which appeared to have been worked into form, were 

 found amongst the bones. The skulls had been crushed by the superincumbent 

 earth. 



The mounds which formerly existed in Erie,- Genesee, Monroe, Livingston, St. 

 Lawrence, Oswego, Chenango, and Delaware counties, all appear to have contained 

 human bones, in greater or less quantities, deposited promiscuously, and embracing 

 the skeletons of individuals of all ages and both sexes. They probably all owe their 

 origin to a practice common to many of the North American tribes, of collecting 

 together at fixed intervals the bones of their dead, and finally depositing them with 

 many and solemn ceremonies. They were sometimes heaped together so as to 

 constitute mounds ; at others placed in pits or trenches dug in the earth ; and it is 

 probable they were in some instances buried in separate graves, but in long ranges, 

 or deposited in caverns, either promiscuously or with regularity. 



The period when this second burial took place occurred at diflerent intervals 



