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A New Hochelagan Burying-ground Discovered at Westmount on the Western Spur of Mount Royal, Montreal, July-September, 1898 by W. D. (William Douw) Lighthall
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immediately interested, and especially in the possibility of their
being Hochelagans, and having particularly commenced some inquiries
into the relations between the latter Indians and the Mohawks, I
wrote, as Chairman of Health of Westmount, asking Chief Harrison to
note the manner and attitude of burial and any objects found, and to
enquire concerning previous excavations in the neighborhood and save
the remains for scientific purposes. (They had been sent by him to the
City Morgue.) The above information concerning the previous skeletons
was then collected and I found that the witnesses concurred in
agreeing that the attitude seems to have been in all cases with
knees bent up. No objects seem to have been noticed in any of the
excavations then made, though some may have been overlooked by the
workmen, particularly as the soil of the locality is full of pieces of
limestone and small boulders, closely resembling arrow heads, hammers
and celts. Several bones which are not human have however been since
found with these three skeletons, one possibly of a dog, another of
a squirrel. They may be those of the funeral feast Sir William Dawson
mentions in his work "Fossil Men," as usually to be looked for over
the Hochelagan graves.

Mr. Beauchamp, the New-York authority, writes concerning the Mohawks;
"Burial customs varied greatly among the same people, but usually the
knees are drawn up. The face might be turned either way in contiguous
graves. I have seen many opened with no articles in them." By the
kindness of Dr. Wyatt Johnston, Pathologist to the Provincial Board
of Health, the three skeletons have been preserved and are now in
the Chateau de Ramezay Historical Museum where they will doubtless
be regarded with interest by scholars. The skulls have been fully
identified as of the Indian type, and found to be those of two
powerful males in the prime of life and one young woman. The skull
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