Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/149

Rh a rib, and a fragment of the under jaw of a perſon about half grown; another rib of an infant, and part of the jaw of a child, which had not cut its teeth. This laſt furniſhing the moſt deciſive proof of the burial of children here, I was particular in my attention to it. It was part of the right half of the under jaw. The proceſſes, by which it was articulated to the temporal bones, were entire, and the bone itſelf firm to where it had been broken off, which, as nearly as I could judge, was about the place of the eye-tooth. Its upper edge, wherein would have been the ſockets of the teeth, was perfectly ſmooth. Meaſuring it with that of an adult, by placing their hinder proceſſes together, its broken end extended to the penultimate grinder of the adult. This bone was white, all the others of a ſand color. The bones of infants being ſoft, they probably decay ſooner, which might be the cauſe ſo few were found here. I proceeded then to make a perpendicular cut through the body of the barrow, that I might examine its internal ſtructure. This paſſed about three feet from its center, was opened to the former ſurface of the earth, and was wide enough for a man to walk through and examine its ſides. At the bottom, that is, on the level of the circumjacent plain, I found bones; above theſe a few ſtones, brought from a cliff a quarter of a mile off, and from the river one-eighth of a mile off; then a large interval of earth, then a ſtrantum of bones, and ſo on. At one end of the ſection were four ſtrata of bones plainly diſtinguiſhable; at the other, three; the ſtrata in one part not ranging with thoſe in another. The bones neared the ſurface were leaſt decayed. No holes were diſcovered in