474 THE SENECA NATION 



grave is also said to have been found there. Flint points are 

 found on the low lands at the base of the hill near Gasport, half 

 a mile away. 



The surface of the hill yields practically no Indian artifacts. 

 I found one pitted stone hammer and a few flakes which evi- 

 dently marked the spot where some Indian had made a point at 

 some distance from the ossuaries. 



The second ossuary is twelve feet south of the (probable) 

 southern edge of the first ossuary. It proved to be an irregular 

 rectangle, the bounding lines of which seemed to be parallel to 

 those of the first pit. 



In exploring it I stripped the earth from an area over the 

 ossuary of nine feet by ten feet and thus uncovered a large 

 superficial area of bones, and then followed the eastern, northern 

 and southern edges of the pit. The uncovering was not con- 

 tinued to complete the western edge because of lack of time and 

 this has not since been uncovered, though the testing rod showed 

 that the bones extend westward for about four feet from the 

 edge of our excavation. 



The entire pit was filled with one great mass of human 

 bones. In the portion uncovered we counted 135 skulls. The 

 bones were in no order but were intermingled in the greatest 

 confusion. In a few instances the bones of a limb were found 

 together as though the limb had been intact when it was thrown 

 into the pit, or at least that the bones were still held together by 

 the tendons. In at least two instances the bones of a skeleton 

 were so arranged as to suggest the "bundle burial" type of 

 interment which occurred so often in the Grand Island cemetery, 

 the long bones being laid together and parallel, with the skull at 

 one end and the pelvis at the other. 



Only one entire skeleton was found. This lay in a flexed 

 posture, head to the west and face south, on the original soil of 

 the bottom of the pit and at its extreme edge. It was covered 

 with the bones of the other skeletons of the pit, which lay in 

 immediate contact with it. The only articles found in the pit, 

 namely two small shell beads, lay on the pelvis of this skeleton. 



The bones in the pit were those of persons of all ages from 

 infancy to extreme old age. There were numerous evidences of 

 disease and wounds. Several tibias and clavicles were enlarged 

 and spongy. One skull was marked at the base by a deep cut 



