"These recesses, though under ground, are yet dry enough to attract
and retain the nitrick acid. It combines with lime and potash, and
probably the earthy matter of these excavations contains a good
proportion of calcareous carbonate. Amidst these drying and
antiseptick ingredients, it may be conceived that putrefaction would
be stayed, and the solids preserved from decay. The outer envelope of
the body is a deer skin, probably dried in the usual way and perhaps
softened before its application by rubbing. The next covering is a
deer's skin, whose hair had been cut away by a sharp instrument
resembling a hatter's knife. The remnant of the hair and the gashes in
the skin nearly resemble a sheared pelt of beaver. The next wrapper is
of cloth made of twine doubled and twisted. But the thread does not
appear to have been formed by the wheel, nor the web by the loom. The
warp and filling seem to have been crossed and knotted by an operation
like that of the fabricks of the northwest coast, and of the Sandwich
islands. Such a botanist as the lamented Muhlenburgh could determine
the plant which furnished the fibrous material.

"The innermost tegument is a mantle of cloth like the preceding, but
furnished with large brown feathers arranged and fastened with great
art so as to be capable of guarding the living wearer from wet and
cold. The plumage is distinct and entire, and the whole bears a near
similitude to the feathery cloaks now worn by the nations of the
northwestern coast of America. A Wilson might tell from what bird they
were derived.

"The body is in a squatting posture with the right arm reclining
forward and its hand encircling the right leg. The left arm hangs
down, with its hand inclined partly under the seat. The individual,
who was a male did not probably exceed the age of fourteen, at his