in the vicinity of Nelson Ledges, Portage County, Ohio. These ledges are outcrops of the conglomerate, and their cavities had furnished shelter for the ancient people. In the talus and on the higher level are found areas of dark soil, rich in relics of various kinds, and among these only occur the lumps of manganese. This mineral crops out in places at Bainbridge, twenty miles away, and no nearer. Pottery fragments, showing black spots of the manganese, and lumps having a polished surface, have been picked up. Mr. Luther also speaks of a great mortar which appears to have been used in crushing quartz.
McLean, John J., while transmitting a meteorological report from Sitka Castle, Alaska, notes the "fish-dance," performed in honor of the arrival of the shoals of herring. "The herring are so plentiful that an Indian with his nail-studded thin board could catch a canoe fall in an hour. The Sitka Indians built fires at the mouth of Indian River, and sang and danced their national airs every night for more than a week. I witnessed several of the dances at the arrival of the fish. None but the men participated, the women sitting around the fire and keeping up a shrill monotonous chorus. The dancing movement consisted in a step from one foot to the other and stamping to emphasize the music, the body more or less stooped, and the head jerked from one side to the other in rapid movement. The melodies were extremely simple, containing three or four notes. The time was now slow and stately, like a funeral dirge, again quick and lively. There were numerous pauses, each ushering a slight modification of the melody and time. On the whole the tune was not inharmonious, having a barbaric fitness to the people and the occasion. They seem to have an appreciation of the picturesque, for they had chosen one of the prettiest spots in the whole neighborhood for their festivities. The dark snow-capped mountain for a back-ground and the broad waters of the beautiful bay, lit up by the full moon. The subject of the songs was a description of hunting and fishing. Their costume consisted of blankets with tin tags, sewn on, jingling with each movement of the body, wigs made of oakum and eagles' feathers, and blackened faces striped with vermilion. The sports were kept up each night until a late hour.
MacLean, J. P., describes and figures in his letter of December 10th two circular inclosures in Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio.
He also found on Blennerhasset Island numerous antiquities, among them a shell heap, 100 feet long. He reports that Dr. G. O. Hildreth, in sinking a cistern a little west of the Graded Way, Marietta, Ohio, came upon a cave containing human and animal bones. The cistern was commenced 15 feet below the plain, on a side hill. Six feet below the surface the diggers came upon a solid mass of concrete, composed chiefly of quartz pebbles. Below this was a cavern one foot in height, on the floor of which were the bones above mentioned. There was no outlet to the cave, and it is to be supposed that by the filling up of the
