FOURTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I907 95 



bones, included ribs, pelves, phalanges, astragali tibiae, and verte- 

 brae. There were two female skulls. 



Burial i8. This burial was in the middle of trench 3 at 19' and 

 18' south of the ossuar}- (17). On the bottom of the grave a few 

 potsherds were discovered but no visible trace of bone. 



The problem of the many empty graves in the burial knoll was 

 at first a puzzling one. Some graves contained a few ribs, some a 

 pelvis, one or two arm bones and teeth and others were entirely 

 empty except for traces of bone dust. 



As a hypothesis the theory was then advanced that the parts of 

 skeletons, the larger limb bones and skulls had been removed from 

 the graves and deposited in the ossuaries ; that the graves had been 

 left, open or filled, for use again. The ossuary burial is a Huron, 

 or perhaps more properly a Huron-Iroquois custom, and has 

 usually, perhaps entirely, been held a mere matter of superstition 

 or ceremonial custom. The presence of empty graves and over- 

 flowing ossuaries suggested the theory of the economic utility of 

 the ossuaries. The virgin earth being difiicult to dig, but once dis- 

 turbed never packing as hard as before, it would have been a matter 

 of labor, time and space saving to exhume the remains of the dead 

 and reinter them in an ossuary, and to use the empty graves again 

 as burial places. 



These theories are only tentative and not to be regarded as estab- 

 lished until numbers of other places shall have shown the same 

 characteristics. It is also of importance that more than one ob- 

 server should have noted them. 



Excavations within the inclosure. The ground within the 

 earth wall has not been disturbed since its aboriginal occupation 

 except in places where sugar boilers had been erected. 



Over 120 basinlike depressions were scattered over the surface 

 and varied in diameter from 3' to 10', and in depth, from 6" to a 

 foot. These pits were examined to discover their purport. Only 

 six yielded anything in the way of relics. These consisted of flint 

 chips, fire broken stones, pottery fragments and arrowheads. Tlie 

 earth was not disturbed in any case, except in that of the deep 

 middle pit, for a depth of more than 30", the underlying soil being 

 hard and impenetrable by crude implements. 



Middle pit. This pit was carefully excavated. The soil was 

 disturbed for about 9" below its modern surface except at the bottom 

 where there was an ash pit 4' in depth and 4' in diameter. Mingled 

 through the soil of the large pit was found a quantity of pottery, 



