Putnam.] 328 [January 6, 



covered with loose limestone, 1 from four to six feet deep, before you 

 enter the clay impregnated with nitre. It is of easy access, being 

 about twenty feet wide, and six feet high, at the mouth or entrance. 

 It is enlarged to about fifty feet wide, and ten 2 feet high, almost as 

 soon as you enter it. This place had evident marks of having once 

 been the residence of the aborigines of the country, from the quan- 

 tity of ashes, and the remains of fuel, and torches made of the reeds 

 etc., which were found in it." *#**** 



A letters from Dr. Mitchill, of New York, to Samuel M. Burnside, Esq., Secre- 

 tary of the American Antiquarian Society, on North American Antiquities. 

 (From the Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc, p. 318-321.) 



" I offer you some observations on a curious piece of American 

 Antiquity, now in New York. It is a human body, found in one of 

 the lime-stone caverns of Kentucky. It is a perfect exsiccation; all 

 the fluids are dried up. The skin, bones, and other firm parts are 

 in a state of entire preservation. I think it enough to have puzzled 

 Bryant and all the Archaeologists. 



" In exploring a calcareous chamber in the neighborhood of Glas- 

 gow, for saltpetre, several human bodies were found enwrapped care- 

 fully in skins and cloths. They were inhumed below the floor of the 

 cave ; inhumed, and not lodged in catacombs. 



" These recesses, though under ground, are yet dry enough to at- 

 tract and retain the nitrick acid. It combines with lime and potash; 

 and probably the earthy matter of these excavations contains a good 

 proportion of calcareous carbonate. Amidst these drying and anti- 

 septick ingredients, it may be conceived that putrefaction would be 

 stayed, and the solids preserved from decay. 



" The outer envelope of the body is a deer skin, probably dried in 

 the usual way, and perhaps softened before its application, by rub- 

 bing. The next covering is a deer skin, whose hair had been cut 

 away by a sharp instrument, resembling a hatter's knife. The rem- 

 nant of the hair, and the gashes in the skin, nearly resemble a 

 sheared pelt of beaver. The next wrapper is of cloth, made of 

 twine doubled and twisted. But the thread does not appear to have 

 been formed by the wheel, nor the web by the loom. The warp and 

 filling seem to have been crossed and knotted by an operation like 



1 Fallen roof rock. 



2 Probably a misprint for one hundred. 



3 Dated August 24, 1815. 



