Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/151

Rh dozen miles to pay this viſit, and purſued their journey. There is another barrow much reſembling this, in the low grounds of the ſouth branch of Shenandoah where it is croſſed by the road leading from the Rockfiſh gap to Staunton, both of theſe have within theſe dozen years, been cleared of their trees and put under cultivation, are much reduced in their height, and ſpread in width by the plough, and will probably diſappear in time. There is another on a hill in the Blue ridge of mountains, a few miles north of Wood's gap, which is made up of ſmall ſtones thrown together. This has been opened and found to contain human bones, as the others do. There are alſo many others in other parts of the country.

Great queſtion has ariſen from whence came thoſe aboriginals of America? Diſcoveries, long ago made, were ſufficient to ſhow that a paſſage from Europe to America was always practicable, even to the imperfect navigation of ancient times. In going from Norway to Ireland, from Ireland to Groenland, from Groenland to Labrador, the firſt traject is the wideſt: and this having been practiſed from the earlieſt times of which we have any account of that part of the earth, it is not difficult to ſuppoſe that the ſubſequent trajects may have been ſometimes paſſed. Again, the late diſcoveries of Captain Cook, coaſting from Kamſchatka to California, have proved that if the two continents of Aſia and America be ſeparated at all, it is only by a narrow ſtraight. So that from this ſide alſo, inhabitants may have paſſed into America: and the reſemblance between the Indians of America and the eaſtern inhabitants of Aſia, would induce us to conjecture, that the