26 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



pressure of the stones and softened by percolating water, have been found 

 at the original surface; and vague statements are made regarding copper, 

 shell, and stone objects with them; but nothing definite can be learned 

 as to their type or arrangement. Relics sometimes occur alone in such 

 order as to suggest they were deposited with bodies of which no trace 

 now remains. Earth was very seldom used in constructing these mounds, 

 but decaying vegetation and the dust borne by winds have caused a con- 

 siderable accumulation within them. 



In a few mounds the bodies were covered by stones over which 

 earth was piled sometimes to a thickness of several feet. In one of these 

 a space fully fifteen feet in diameter was covered with human bones pro- 

 miscuously thrown in as if from sacks or baskets. They were between 

 two layers of bark, beneath a stone mound four feet high, over which six 

 feet of earth was heaped. No similar case is reported, bodies usually be- 

 ing interred as in earth mounds. 



Through much of the hilly portion of Ohio, particularly along the 

 Ohio River, are numerous stone graves. Almost without exception they 

 are on the summit of a high hill, or the point of a long. ridge, command- 

 ing an extensive outlook. In their construction the ground was cleared 

 off, sometimes only the humus being removed, at others the earth being 

 dug away to the subsoil. Large flat stones, closely fitted, were then laid 

 down and the bod) 7 or bodies deposited on them. Similar slabs were set 

 on edge around this base, the tops projecting perhaps a foot above the 

 surface. Most of the graves are circular or elliptical in shape, a few be- 

 ing rectangular. The latter are often only large enough for a single 

 body, though several may be built in a connected group ; the former vary 

 from that size to twenty feet across. Narrow ones have a covering of 

 slabs, thus forming a box-like receptacle. The enclosed space of those 

 too wide for such protection is filled with stones which were loosely 

 thrown in, or supported by timbers whose decay has allowed them to fall 

 in confusion. Sometimes the vertical slabs rest on the margin of the 

 pavement instead of around it; occasionally there is more than one row 

 of them. Over some of the graves loose stones were piled, forming a cairn. 

 The bones are generally so decayed and broken it is impossible to ascer- 

 tain the number of individuals buried; and relics of any kind are very rare. 



(//.) GRAVES, CEMETERIES, AND VILLAGE- SITES. 



As nearly three times the average population of any community will 

 die within a century, it is obvious that, large as may be the aggregate of 

 mound interments, only a small portion of the dead were thus disposed of. 

 The great majority were buried in ordinary graves, whose form is deter- 

 mined b3^ the nature of the ground. In sandy or gravelly earth they are 



