Note 15 — Chapter IV · ANCIENT INDIAN MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN OHIO. Earthworks of the Mound Builders and their geographical position.—Miamisburgh Mound.—Grave Creek Mound.—Ages and contents of burial mounds.—Rectangular, circular and octagonal Inclosures near Newark.— Marietta Earthworks.—Discoveries made in a burial mound.—Fortifications near Portsmouth.—Encampments in the valley of the Scioto.

It is known that a communication between the south-western extremity of Lake Superior and the Mississippi Valley, existed from an early time. When I was at Toronto, Professor Daniel Wilson, to whom I was indebted for much information upon subjects relating to American archæology, told me that it had been ascertained that the copper found in these mounds, was of the same character as that in the Lake Superior Mines: so that the question of its origin was practically settled. It thus seems probable that some of the small lumps of pure copper found in the forests and on the shores of the lake, near the Kee-wai-wona promontory, were brought into Ohio.

A mound that was opened near Lake Ontario, and whose contents I examined, was stated to have been twelve feet high. Within it were about twenty skeletons, some coarse pottery, a number of arrow heads made of a hard flinty stone and several flat rectangular stones, pierced with one or two holes, which had been used as breast ornaments, possibly denoting a certain rank. There were also stone gouges, some stone axes and many fragments of charred wood. This was probably an Iroquois grave.