ARCHEOLOGY. 25 



the adjustment of specimens with them; but such coincidences are less 

 remarkable than a distinct fashion- of burial would be for each of many 

 thousand individuals. 



Marks of violent death, as a fractured skull, broken limb, or bone 

 with imbedded arrow-head, are sometimes met with; but no indications 

 that any tumulus was erected solely to cover those slain in battle. On 

 the contrary, all periods of life are represented in many of them, from the 

 infant of a few days to the man or woman of extreme age. 



Below the base line of many mounds, especially the larger ones, are 

 cylindrical holes sometimes by scores, from six to twenty inches in diam- 

 eter and from twelve to thirty inches deep. Some of them by their 

 position and regular intervals seem to have held posts which formed part 

 of a house or other structure. These contain charcoal, ashes, or traces of 

 wood; and in a few instances portions of the posts themselves, converted 

 into charcoal, extend upward two feet or more into the mound. Other 

 holes are filled to the top with the ordinary refuse of an Indian camp-fire, 

 as clean ashes, fine loose earth apparently from decay of organic sub- 

 stance, mussel and snail shells, broken and burned animal bones, frag- 

 ments of pottery. Very few of these seem to have had fire in them, the 

 sides rarely showing any evidence of heat. Some were dug considerably 

 anterior to the construction of the mound, as skeletons have been found 

 lying directly across them with a thin intervening layer of accumulated 

 earth. 



At least one example is known of a mound being erected above the 

 charred, fragmentary remains of a person who was burned at the stake. 



Intrusive burials by modern Indians, or by whites, at the apex of the 

 mounds, are very common; and, rarely, a mound has been opened from 

 the top nearly or quite to the bottom by persons who have placed in the 

 excavation additional bodies and then restored the mound, carrying it to 

 a height several feet greater than its original elevation. 



Stone mounds are confined to such parts of the State as have on the 

 surface an abundant supply of stones of convenient size for handling, and 

 to situations where these may be easily collected. Less numerous by far 

 than the earthen tumuli, they compare favorably with them in average 

 size. One which stood eight miles south of Newark had a base diameter 

 of two hundred feet with a height fully one-fourth as great. All the stone 

 in the retaining wall along the north side of the lacking reservoir was 

 taken from this mound, yet several thousand cubic yards remain in place. 

 This one, however, was exceptional; few exceed twenty feet in height, 

 with a base line from three to four times as much. The difficulty of ex- 

 cavation, and a general belief that nothing of interest is to be found in 

 them, have prevented a thorough examination of any of these mounds; 

 in such as have been removed the aim was to utilize the material, and 

 little attention was paid to anything else. Human bones, broken by the 



