The Portland daily press., 1893-09-29

An interesting discovery was made
Wednesday by DR.. A. K. Crawford OF
Chicago, who is building summer
home at Falmouth Foreside, near Waite's
Landing. DR.. Crawford has selected for
the site of his cottage a level terrace,
which runs to the very edge of the rocky
water line. The regularity of this terrace
suggests that it is not entirely natural
conformation, but rather the result OF
the Iabors of man. This may we'll be,
for at this place is the site of old Fort
Casco, one of the most Important and
ancient of the posts by which the Eng
lish sought to awe the Indians OF this
region and preserve the region of Maine
from the entertainments of the French.
This portion of the Foreside had been a
great resort for the Indians from imme-
mortal time. The great quantities OF
clam shells attest to the fact that every
year great camps of Algonquins resorted
hither to fish and feast.
g The terrace on which DR.. Crawford is
building his cottage many have been
leveled off for use in connection with the
old fort which was located there only
about gun shot away, on the land
owned by General John Marshall Brown.
THE soil is light sandy loan, and on
Wednesday Mr.. Harry B. Jeffrey of
Chicago, relative of DR.. Crawford was
digging post hole, using for the pur-
pose an earth augur. AT depth of about
foot he struck what seemed to be a
piece of badly corroded hoop iron. A
minute later the augur brought up a
piece of bone DR.. Crawford was working
near by and to him Mr.. Jeffrey showed
what he had found. "That bone is part
of human foot" said the doctor, the
minute his practiced eye rested upon it.
There was interest at once, and careful
exploration was made in the sandy
loan. This exploration disclosed very
shallow grave, hardly four feet long and
not over foot on a footssand a half deep.
In this grave was the skeleton of a young
man, twenty-five or thirty years of age,
the body part and legs much doubled up
to enable it to be placed il SO short
grave, and the whole c1umbling from
the corrosion of time and the insidious
workings of vegetable fibre from the sur
face. The remains of long, slender
steel rapier, the weapon of an officer,
were lying oversthis skeleton. Che skull
was in very good condition, showing
every tooth, including the wisdom teeth,
in perfect order. DIR. Crawford said that
this showed that the skeleton was that
of young man, twenty-five or thirty
years of age. He was Caucasian, with
we'll developed forehead and fine, regular
features. The girth of the skull was
twenty-one inches.
The bones of the legs and arms were
quite well preserved, indicating that the
deceased wassabout five feet, nine or ten
inches in height The bones of the
fingers and toes were gone, and the back
bone and ribs were in state Of great
wreck.
No vestige of any article save the rapier
was found. This rapier was badly cor
roded. no trace of the hilt being found,
although the portion of the handle,
which is often covered with leather and
wound fancifully with wire, still shows
tracesof the finish. It seems quite proba-
BILE that the rapier may have been in a
metal scabbard when the body was
buried, and that the soabbard oxydized
onto the blade, thus preserving it. The
weapon seems to have been of very
ancient pattern; probably with no hilt
except a cross piece or round shield for
the hand, ssand with long handle. The
blade was also long. 1t must in it's day
have been a fine weapon, perhaps q
Damascus blade, since even now, eaten
as it is by the corrosion of more than a
century, it retains something of that ex-
cellence of temper which enabled the
true blade to be bent until the point
touched the hilt
When Mrs. Crawford heard that the
body of seventeenthso r eighteenth CEN
fury gallant had been found, she re-
uuested DIR. Crawford to look on the left
hand for signet ring: but the left hand
itself could not be found, and no trace of
the jewel was to be seen.
A layer of clamshells was found over
the body with thin layer of loan over
that. 1t seems probable that those who
made the sepulcher put only clam shells
from neighboring heaps, over the body.
Then time deposited the mold over the
shells.
Who was the young officer buried SO
hastily in. this short and shallow grave,
yet with one certain mark of respect, the
laying of this sword upon his bosom?
The locality suggests something.
Hardly gun shot from this grave is
the place where old "Casco Fort" is
thought to have stood. This fort was
built in 100 and demolished in 1915
Mayor Baxter, while in London, dis
covered the plan of it. 1t was a great
rendezvous for the Indians, a noted
treaty once being made there in the
presence of 800 Indians Standing near
the fort were two large piles of stones,
called the 1.-TWO Brothers Every time
treaty was made the Indians would
add stones to one pile and the whites to
another.
In the latter portion of the seventeenth