Putnam.] 318 [January 6, 



He spoke of an examination of a group of mounds near Glasgow ; 

 and though no human remains were found in these particular 

 mounds, a most interesting burial place on a hill close by may 

 have had some connection with them. This burial place consisted 

 of a number of circular graves, most of which had been destroyed 

 by the cultivation* of the land ; but one that had not been disturbed 

 by the plough was carefully opened. This grave was in the form of 

 a circle of about four feet in diameter, and had been dug to the 

 depth of about three feet. Upright slabs of limestone about three 

 feet in height, from one to two feet in width and three or four inches 

 in thickness, had then been placed round the hole. The bottom of 

 the grave had been covered with pieces of shale brought from Peter's 

 Creek, about a quarter of a mile distant. The bodies, at least fifteen 

 in number, had been placed in the grave, evidently arranged in a sit- 

 ting posture, in a circle. A few pieces of stone found on the surface 

 of the grave may indicate that stone s had been placed over it. If 

 any slight earth mound had been formed over the grave, it had been 

 washed away, as the edges of the upright stones were projecting a few 

 inches above the present surface of the soil. F rom the fact that only 

 a fragment of pottery was found among the stones on the surface of 

 the grave, and no implements of any kind with the bodies, it may be 

 that articles, since scattered, were placed over the grave. The num- 

 ber of these circular graves that once existed at this spot on the 

 homestead of Gen. Jos. H. Lewis, who had taken Mr. Putnam to the 

 place, suggested many thoughts as to their connection with the group 

 of mounds in the little valley below ; and from the great resemblance 

 of the crania to those from mounds, Mr. Putnam was led to consider 

 that these graves probably indicated a peculiar mode of burial which 

 may yet be found to be as characteristic of the singular mound-build- 

 in«- race, as the burial under mounds is now supposed to be. The fact 

 that all the bodies must have been placed in the grave at the same 

 time, and that they were those of persons of various ages, from three 

 children who had still the first set of teeth, as shown by fragments of 

 jaws found, to a person quite advanced in age, while the majority 

 •were evidently of middle age, — and also the peculiar hole in one 

 of the arm bones, perhaps indicating a blow with some pointed 

 instrument, — give opportunity for speculations which cannot be 

 proved, or disproved by these silent relics of a once populous race 

 inhabiting the beautiful country where their bones were laid so long 

 ago that tradition of the more recent Indian tribes gives no clew to 



