METALLIC IM1'LEME^•TS OF NEW YOKK INDLVNS U 



(liselosed. The one cuiitaiuiu*;- the beads had no other lelics save 

 a few crimibliii^' fragments of bone, \\hlU' the grave containing 

 the coi)per celt, bnt a few yards distant, yielded (]uite a store of 

 tine objects, among which were an ornamented slate tnlx', some 

 awls and a hook of bone, several hundred small perforated sea- 

 ehells, and a very fine doubly i)erforated boat-stone, liiade of cave 

 alabaster. The 135 beads, varying from i to -J- of an inch in di- 

 ameter, were made hj coiling a pounded strip of native copper 

 upon itself, and then by further dextrous beating bringing the 

 lapped edge down to an almost perfect weld. Unfortunately for 

 science this interesting find was scattered instead of being pre- 

 served intact. 



On reviewing this list an interesting question m suggested. 

 The indicated localities show^ that all described, with the excep- 

 tion of the celt from Sharon, are from the Hudson valley from 

 Stuyvesant north to Lake George, and from the lower waters of 

 the Sacandaga and Mohawk rivers. In fact every specimen 

 listed, with possibly two exceptions, comes within the bounds 

 of the ancient territorv of the Mahikans or Eiver Indians. Can 

 we thus conclude that these were made and used bv these 

 Indians? Certainh', to my knowledge no native copper imple- 

 ments have been reported from any part of the Mohawk valley 

 west of the localities mentioned. All of the numerous private 

 collections of local material in the Mohawk vallev, from Amster- 

 dam to Utica, are absolutely barren of relics of this character. 

 Triangular and conical arrowheads, rolled tubular beads, trink- 

 ets, etc. made from sheet copper and brass of colonial times, 

 are quite abundant on castle and village sites on either bank 

 of the Mohawk w^est from Amsterdam, but never an object of 

 native copper has appeared. Garoga, Otsquago and Cayadutta, 

 the three great Mohawk strongholds of precolonial time, with 

 their mvriad relics unearthed, tell us the same storv — an utter 

 absence of native copper. 



In qualifying the above suggestive statement it may be said 

 that the Palatine Bridge awl and beads are presumably of native 

 copper, and that nowhere are native copper articles more fre- 

 quent than in Clinton county near Lake Champlain. They seem 

 everywhere to have been lost in travel and thev are rare in the 

 Mohawk valley because that was not a favorite route till the 

 Mohawks came there late in the 16th centurv. Even then the 

 river was little used west of Canajoharie for a long time. 



Several of the articles mentioned by Mr Van Epps are illus- 

 trated in this bulletin, and can be compared with his account. 



