128 APPENDIX. 



" coffins" are neatly constructed of long flat stones, planted vertically, and adapted 

 to each other edge to edge, so as to form a continuous wall. At either end of the 

 grave the stones project a little above the surface. These stone sarcophagi are 

 usually from three to four, but sometimes as many as six feet in length. The 

 bones in these appear to have been deposited after having been separated from the 

 flesh, in accordance with a practice well known to have been common amongst many 

 Indian tribes. — {Beckys Gaz. of Missouri, p. 274 ; James''s Exped., Vol. I., p. 55.) 

 Other extensive cemeteries are found in various parts of the country. One near 

 Alexandria, in Arkansas, is said to be a mile square.* 



A very extensive cemetery has been discovered in Bracken county, Kentucky, 

 occupying nearly the whole of the " bottom^'' or plain, on the south bank of the 

 Ohio, between Bracken and Turtle creeks. The village of Augusta has been built 

 upon it in latter times. -The following account of this cemetery was communi- 

 cated to the author by Gen. John Payne, of Augusta. It will be observed that 

 iron was discovered in some of the graves ; which demonstrates that a portion of 

 the burials took place since communication was established between the whites 

 and Indians, and very likely within the 18th century. 



" The beautiful bottom upon which it stands, extends from one creek to the 

 other, about a mile and a half, and averaging about 800 yards wide. The town 

 is laid off" at the upper end of the bottom. The hill back of it is high, but not pre- 

 cipitous ; and upon arriving at the summit, it almost immediately falls towards the 

 south with a gentle but deep descent, and immediately there rises another hill. I 

 am thus particular, that you may have a knowledge of the ground where now rest 

 the skeletons of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of an ancient race, as well as of the 

 surrounding localities. The soil of the bottom-land is alluvial. 



" The village rests upon one vast cemetery : indeed, the whole bottom appears 

 to have been a great burying-ground ; for a post-hole can hardly be dug in any part 

 of it without turning up human bones, particularly within thi-ee or four hundred 

 yards of the river bank. The ground appears to have been thrown up into ridges, 

 one end resting on the river bank, and the other extending out some two, others 

 three hundred yards, with depressions between of about one hundred feet, the 

 ridges rising to an elevation- of about three feet, and are about fifty or sixty yards 

 wide. These ridges are full of human skeletons, regularly buried. My house, at 

 the lower end of the village, stands upon one of these ridges : and in excavating a 



* Accounts of a number of these ancient cemeteries are given by Gen. Lewis Collins, in his recently 

 published History of Kentucky, from which the following notices are condensed. Six miles N. E. of 

 Bowling Green, Warren county, there is a cave which has a perpendicular descent 'of about thirty or forty 

 feet. At the bottom are vast quantities of human bones. — (p. 541.) On the north bank of Green River 

 in the ^^cinity of Bowling Green, are a great many ancient graves ; some of which are formed of stones set 

 edgewise. A similar cemetery occurs near the mouth of Peter's creek, on Big Barren River ; the bones 

 are enclosed m stone coffins, which are about three feet long, and from one to one and a half wide. On 

 the same river, three miles above Glasgow, and on Skegg's creek, five miles S. W. of the same place, are 

 caves containing human bones ; those in the last named cavern seem to be exclusively the bones of small 

 children. — (p. 177.) Similar caverns are found in Union and Meade counties, all of which are said to 

 contain human bones in abundance. 



