THE DISCOVERY OF BURLINGTON BAY. 53 



of a small lake in the township of Nelson, about 10 miles from Ham- 

 ilton, known as Lake Medad, not far beyond Waterdown. Some 

 seven years ago, the writer having learned that an ancient Indian 

 ossuary or bone pit had been discovered at this point, through the 

 burrowing of a small animal called a wood-chuck, had the curiosity 

 to visit the place, and found it a most interesting one. The lake 

 itself, a pretty sheet of water of some eight acres in extent is fed by 

 abundant natural springs. On one side, beneath an abrupt, rocky 

 bank, and from a rocky basin which may have been widened and 

 cleared of loose stones ages ago, bursts out a noble spring of clear, 

 cold water, sufficient in capacity to supply the wants of a small city. 

 A steep pathway cut deeply into the rock and earthy embankment 

 by the feet of both wild animals and Indians in prehistoric times, 

 leads from the spring up to a sloping plain of considerable extent, 

 on which as yet but little modern civilization has been accomplished. 



You can see scattered over this slope curious rounded heaps of 

 about forty to one hundred feet long and ten wide, a spade at once 

 reveals that they are heaps of ashes, containing many fragments of 

 Indian pottery, bones of animals, and broken weapons. On a por- 

 tion of the plain Indian corn had probably been cultivated. Here 

 at some distant period had evidently been situated an important 

 Indian town of the Neuter nation. This tribe, as before mentioned, 

 occupied the country between the Niagara and the Detroit rivers. 

 In their wars with the Indians of Michigan they acted with more fero- 

 cious cruelty than even the Huron or Iroquois, roasting and eating their 

 prisoners of war of both sexes. The men going without clothing of 

 any kind in summer. Their time of destruction, however, followed 

 quickly upon that of the Hurons, for after the slaughter of the latter, 

 the Iroquois turned all their fury upon the Neuters and left no sur- 

 vivors whatever. 



Proceeding to the highest point of the plain quite at one side of 

 the clusters of ash heaps, were discovered the Ossuaries. They 

 consisted of three pits. One measuring forty feet long by seventeen 

 wide, and five in depth, and the two others circular about 12 feet in 

 diameter and 7 feet in depth. Upon the former were two large pine 

 stumps, the rings of growths of the larger numbering 125. All these 

 pits were situated within a few yards of each other. In them were 

 found partially decayed bones of several hundreds of persons of all 



