72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The knives were found in gravel, below the base of an arti- 

 ficial mound erected on a high ridge, through which a roadway 

 had been cut, removing half the mound, and leaving the roadbed 

 10 feet below the base of mound, as first discovered by early 

 settlers. In excavating for the roadwav the knives and bones no 

 doubt slid down from a point above in the body of the mound. 

 The apex of the mound is at present 15 feet or more above the 

 roadbed. It is thought De Celeron with his large company of 

 French and Indians camped near this spot in 1749, and long 

 previous to this date the natives of this locality no doubt had 

 intercourse and traffic with the French in Canada. . . The 

 above mentioned mound is near Jamestown and the knives were 

 taken from it April 1887. They bear the words '' Lempier — Rue 

 St Honore — 31. H^^ a Paris." 



In a letter dated May 10, 1901, Mr Henderson corrected this 



statement: 



Two steel French knives, 12 inches in length of blade, one 2 

 inches in width at the handle and the other IJ inches, bearing 

 the trademark ^' Sabatier, Rue St Honore, 84, A Paris," were 

 found with a human skeleton in removing a large mound from 

 highway near Fluvanna. They were doubtless obtained by the 

 Senecas from the French in Canada by traffic or stealth, or were 

 intrusively buried in this mound with some deceased French 

 hunter. 



Fig. 169 shows the narrowest of these knives, the trademark 

 being on the opposite side. It is IJ inches wide at the handle 

 and 12 inches in length thence to the point. Fig. 170 is 2 inches 

 wide at the handle with a blade 11 inches long. They are like 

 the common carving knife and suggest the butcher knives to be 

 used as bayonets. 



Fig. 72 is a large, flat and angular knife, made from a brass 

 kettle, and found near Beaver lake, Lysander. Grooves and 

 notches have been filed near the base, for secure attachment to 

 the handle. Iron knives were so abundant that a makeshift like 

 this is rare. 



Fig. 178 is a remarkable recent copper knife of moderate thick- 

 ness, found by Mr Luke Fitch on Indian hill, Pompey. The 

 form is that of a shoemakc^r's knife, and it has a tang for inser- 

 tion. Iron knives are frequent there but this is the only copper 

 one the writer has seen. 



