grounds of the Rivanna, about two miles above its principal fork, and opposite to some hills, on which had been an Indian town. It was of a spheroidical form, of about 40 feet diameter, at the base, and had been of about 12 feet altitude, 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 12 inches diameter, and round the base was an excavation 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 hori. zontal, and directed to every point of the compass, entangled, and held together 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 skull, many skulls 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 skulls, jaw-bones, teeth, the bones of the arms, the thighs, legs, feet, and hands. A few ribs remained, some vertebræ of the neck and spine, without their processes, and one instance only of the bone which serves as a base to the vertebral column. The skulls 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 skull 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 examniation; 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 yet cut its teeth. The last furnishing the most decisive proof of the burial of the 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 colour. The bones of infants being soft, they probably decay sooner, which might be the case 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 centre, 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 stratum 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 nearest the surface were least decayed. No holes were discovered in any of them, as if made with bullets, arrows, or other weapons. I conjectured that in this barrow might have. been a thousand skeletons. Every one will readily seize the circumstances above related, which militate against the opinion that it covered the bones only of persons fallen in battle; and against the tradition also which would make it the common sepulchre of a town, in which the bodies were placed upright, and touching each other. Appearances certainly indicate that it has derived both origin and growth from the accustomary collection of bones, and deposition of them together; that the first collection had been de posited on the common surface of the earth, a few stones put over it, and then a covering of earth; that the second had been laid on this, had covered more or less of it in proportion to the number of bones, and was then also covered with earth, and so on. The following are the particular circumstances which give it this aspect. 1, The number of bones. 2. Their confused position. 3. Their being in different strata. 4. The strata in one part having no correspondence with those in another. 5. The different states of decay in these strata, which seem to indicate a difference in the time of inhumation. 6. The existence of infant bones among them. But on whatever occasion they may have been made, they are of considerable notoriety among the Indians: for a party passing, about thirty years ago, through the part of the country where this barrow is, went through the woods directly to it, with out any instructions or enquiry; and having staid about it some

time, with expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, they returned to the high road, which they had left about half a 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 lead. ing from Rock-fish 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."

CAIRNS.

These are to be seen in many places of Britain, particularly Scotland and Wales. They are composed of stones of all dimensions thrown together in a conical form, a flat stone crowning the apex.

Various causes have been assigned by the learned for these heaps of stones. They have supposed them to have been, in times of inauguration, the places where the chieftain elect stood to show himself to the best advantage to the people; or the place from whence judgement was pronounced; or to have been erected on the road side in honour of Mercury; or to have been formed in memory of solemn compact, particularly where accompanied by standing pillars of stones; or for the celebration of certain religious ceremonies. Such might have been the reasons, in some instances, where the evidences of stone chests and urns are wanting; but these are so generally found that they seem to determine the most usual purpose of the piles in question to have been for sepulchral monuments. Even this destination might render them suitable to other purposes; particularly religious, to which by their nature they might be supposed to give additional solemnity. According to Toland, fires were kindled on the tops of flat stones, at certain times of the year, particularly on the eves of the 1st of May and the 1st of November, for the purpose of sacrificing; at which time all the people having extinguished their domestic hearths rekindled them from the sacred fires of the cairns. In general, therefore, these accumulations appear to have been designed