34 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS
intermixed. Thus while on one side of the shaft the strata were clearly marked, on the other they were con- fused. And, as this was the first mound of the class exca- vated, it was supposed, from this circumstance, that it had previously been opened by some explorer, and it had been decided to abandon it when the skeleton was discovered. Afterwards the matter came to be fully understood. No relics were found with this skeleton.
It is a fact well known, that the modern Indians, though possessing no knowledge of the origin or objects of the mounds, were accustomed to regard them with some degree of veneration. It is also known, that they some- times buried their dead in them, in accordance with the almost invariable custom which leads them to select elevated points, and the brows of hills, as their cemeteries. That their remains should be found in the mounds, is there- fore a matter of no surprise. They are never discovered at any great depth, not often more than eighteen inches or three feet below the surface. Their position varies in almost every case: most are extended at length, others have a sitting posture, while others again seem to have been rudely thrust into their shallow graves without care or arrangement. Rude implements of bone and stone, and coarse vessels of pottery, such as are known to have been in use among the Indians at the period of the earliest European intercourse, occur with some of them, particu- larly with those of a more ancient date; while modern implements and ornaments, in some cases of European origin, are found with the recent burials. The necessity therefore of a careful and rigid discrimination, between these deposits and those of the mound-builders, will be apparent. From the lack of such discrimination, much misapprehension and confusion haye resulted. Silver crosses, gun-barrels, and French dial-plates, have been found with skeletons in the mounds; yet it is not to be concluded that the mound-builders were Catholics, or used
