1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 625 
Another type of houses, of which there are numerous examples, 
consists of a cellar-like excavation in a hill side, the floor being level 
and the height of the back wall varying according to the slope of the 
hill and the size of the house. 
The first of these opened is near Stony Brook Station on the Fitch- 
burg Railway. It is just at the foot of a kame, and at a point where 
an ancient dam extends across a little brook a few yards away. At 
the front was a wall about sixteen feet long of small boulders ; another 
wall of similar stones was a foot within this, somewhat shorter than 
the first and slightly curved. From the ends of these walls the ends 
of the hut were marked by two rows of stones at irregular intervals, 
four or five boulders similarly placed marking the line of the back 
wall At the middle of the excavated area was a carefully placed 
layer of pebbles, covering aspace seven feet long and three feet across. 
This was very probably a hearth, though as in the case of Thorfinn’s 
house there were no marks of heat. At the left front corner of the 
house was a pavement four by five feet of cobblestones, extending 
toward the end of the dam, but not reaching to it. 
A short distance from this hut site was another not more than ten 
feet square within the foundation walls. There was no continuous 
wall in this; but at each front corner three or four stones had been 
piled to make a support for the timbers, and a row of stones extended 
for five feet back from one corner. One stone at the opposite side, 
and two or three at the back formed the remainder of the foundation. 
There was a small pavement of pebbles at the center but they were 
not arranged in any order. 
A third hut, not far from East Watertown, differed from all others 
opened in being narrower at the back than at the front. Boulders 
` were at each front corner, one on each side, and two at the rear. The 
evidence was more distinct in this than in the others, thatthe roof had 
been of sod or turf with a covering of small stones, as the interior 
space was filled for more than a foot in depth with a mingled mass of 
black earth and pebbles that could have come only from the caving in 
of the top. 
At several places, in the neighborhood of these houses are ancient 
cemeteries, most of them on sloping ground, some of them on hill sides - 
so steep as to be difficult of ascent. The grave sites are indicated by 
cairns, generally about six feet in diameter, few of them varying a 
foot from this size. It has been generally supposed that these stone 
piles are due to the clearing up of the ground at some former time: 
but many of them are on slopes so steep that no effort at cultivation 
