Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/148

134 though now reduced by the plough to ſeven and a half, having been under cultivation about a dozen years. Before this it was covered with trees of twelve inches diameter, and round the baſe was an evacuation of five feet depth and width, from whence the earth had been taken of which the hillock was formed, I firſt dug ſuperficially in ſeveral parts of it, and came to collections of human bones, at different depths, from ſix inches to three feet below the ſurface. Theſe were lying in the utmoſt confuſion, ſome vertical, ſome oblique, ſome horizontal, and directed to every point of the compaſs, entangled, and held toghether in cluſters by the earth. Bones of the moſt diſtant parts were found together, as, for inſtance, the ſmall bones of the foot in the hollow of the ſcull; many ſculls would ſometimes be in contact, lying on the face, on the ſide, on the back, top or bottom, ſo as, on the whole, to give the idea of bones emptied promiſcuouſly from a bag or baſket, and covered over with earth, without any attention to their order. The bones of which the greateſt numbers remained, were ſculls, jaw-bones, teeth, the bones of the arms, thighs, legs, feet, and hands. A few ribs remained, ſome vertebrae of the neck and ſpine, without their proceſſes, and one inſtance only of the bones which ſerves as a baſe to the vertebral column. The ſculls were ſo tender, that they generally fell to pieces on being touched. The other bones were ſtronger. There were ſome teeth which were judged to be ſmaller than thoſe of an adult; a ſcull which on a ſlight view, appeared to be that of an infant, but it fell to pieces on being taken out, ſo as to prevent ſatisfactory