unlefs indeed it would be the barrows, of which many are to be found all over this country. Thefe are of different fizes, fome of them conftrufted of earth, an fome of [ ^^5 ] loofe ftones. Thefe are of difrerent fizes, fome of loofe ftones. That they were re- poficories of the dead, has been obvious to all : but on what particular occafion con- ftrufted, was a matter of doubt. Some have thought they covered the bones of thofe who have fallen in battles fought on the fpot of interment. Some afcribed them to the cuftom, faid to pre- vail among the Indians, of coUedling, at certain periods the bones of all their dead, wherefoever depofited at the time of death.
Others again fuppofed them the general fepulchres for towns, conje£lured to have been on or near thefe grounds ; and this opinion w^as fupported by the quality of the lands in which they are found, (thofe conftrufted of earth being generally in the fofteft and moft fertile meadow-grounds on river fides) and by a tradition, faid to be handed down from the aboriginal Indi- ans, that, when they fettled in a town, the firftperfon who died was placed ereft, and earth put about him, fo as to cover and