84 Canadian Record of Science. 



over by many feet of earth. We may not wonder, however, 

 at this, as even now many old churches are abandoned to 

 the fate of being turned into dwelling houses or barns. 



It may be, however, that after the decease of the priest 

 who performed his sacred functions before the altar for 

 many years, the people, to whom he had so lorig ministered, 

 laid, or burned his remains on the altar which they so 

 much revered, and then, like the ancient builders of the 

 pyramids, erected a monument to departed worth, and dur- 

 ing the strange ritual deposited beside the respected remains 

 whatever implements or ornaments they could part with, 

 in honor of the dead. 



Burial Mounds. — As in modern days, a place of sepulture 

 is usually selected some distance from the city or town, so 

 the burial mounds may be expected without the enclosures. 

 In our own time we find some cemeteries densely popu- 

 lated with graves, and others have but few. So it was in the 

 days of the Mound-builders; for we find in some places 

 groups of burial mounds, and in other places only a few 

 may be found scattered over the plain. 



Burial mounds are of various sizes, I presume, according 

 to the dignity of the individual entombed. Sometimes one 

 large mound is found to possess a skeleton, and some inter- 

 esting relics, which indicate the position of the departed, 

 while a group of smaller mounds is situated around it. 

 The large one perhaps contained the skeleton of a leader, 

 surrounded by a few of his intimate followers. Or perhaps 

 it was that of a patriarch, surrounded by his numerous 

 progeny, much as, in our own day, burial plots are set apart 

 for families. 



Grave Creek burial mound, which stands at the junction 

 of Grave Creek, Virginia, with the Ohio, is one of the 

 largest and most important burial mounds in America. It 

 is tO feet in height and at its base it is 1,000 feet in cir- 

 cumference. When this mound was opened, two vaults 

 were found, one at the base contained two skeletons, one of 

 them a female. The logs of which this vault was com- 

 posed were all decayed, and the earth and stones lay upon 

 the skeletons. In the upper vault there was a single skele- 



