[ 19^ ] But on whatever occafionthey may have been made, they are of confiderable no- toriety among the Indians: for a party paffing, about thirty years ago, through the part of the country where this barrow is, went through the woods direvHily to it, without any inftruftions or enquiry, and having ftaid about it fome time, with ex- preffions which were conftrued to be thofe of forrow, they returned to the high road, which they had left about half a dozen miles to pay this vifit, and purfued their journey. There is another barrow much refembling this, in the low grounds of the fouth branch of Shenandoah where it is crofled by the road leading from the RockfiOi gap to Staunton. Both of thefe have within thefe dozen years, been cleared of their trees and put under cultivation, are much reduced in their heighth, and fpread in width, by the plough, and will probably difappear in time. There is an- other on a hill in the Blue ridge of moun- tains, a few miles north of Wood's gap, which is made up of fmall ftones thrown together. This has been opened and [ 19^ ] found to contain human bones, as the others do. There are alfo many others in other parts of the country.
Great queftion has arifen from whence came thofe aboriginals of America? Dif- coveries, long ago made, were fufficient to fhow that the paffage from Europe to America was always prafticable, even to the imperfeft navigation of ancient times.
In going from Norway to Iceland, from Iceland to Groenland, from Groenland to Labrador, the firft trajefl: is the wideft:
and this having been praftifed from the earlieft times of w^hich we have any ac- count of that part of the earth, it is not difficult to fuppofe that the fubfequent trajefts may have been fometimes pafled.
Again, the late difcoveries of Captain Cook, coafting from Kamfchatka to Cali- fornia, have proved that if the two con- tinents of Alia and America be feparated at all, it is only by a narrow ftreight.