MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. C47 



ceutiiry ; if two hundred and fifty years had passed, it woukl have been 

 at the rtite of 3^ inches per century, or nearly the same as tliat found by 

 Dr. Horner at Keliopolis, in Egypt. If we assume an average secuhir 

 increase in our valleys of 3 inches per century, the skeletons at Frews- 

 bury are at least eight hundred years old ; they must be at least six 

 hundred y6ars old. I am not without hope that closer and more pa- 

 tient observations will, in course of time give us some reliabk' data 

 upon or from which we can estimate antiquities now seemingly beyond 

 our reach. 



That Chautauqua County was once inhabited by a people more ad- 

 vanced than were the Indians found in the neighborhood by the French 

 and Dutch may, I think, be assumed. That there were human beings 

 here eight hundred or even one thousand years ago seems probable. 



1 think there are many reasons for the belief that the Indian race, or 

 races, if you will, were the descendants of the Mound-Builders, notwith- 

 standing eminent ethnologists think to the contrary. 



I think our county would richly repay a thorough scientific explora- 

 tion. 



ANTIQUITIES OF ONONDAGA AND ADJOINING COUNTIES 



IN NEW YORK. 



By W. M. Beauchamp. 



The best accounts of the antiquities of this portion of New York are 

 in Clark's History of Onondaga (1849). This work treats jn-incipally of 

 Elbridge and Pompey. General J. A. Clark, of Auburn, has published 

 an identification of Onondaga historical sites, which is also worthy of 

 study. Recently the Skaneateles Democrat gave an account of the 

 finding of a clay pipe there, with human face, 30 inches under ground, 

 in low hind; the Auburn papers, of the discovery of human skeletons 

 in Fleming; and the Syracuse papers, of the disinterring of thirty pre- 

 historic skeletons in stone cists in East Syracuse, and of the finding 

 of several skeletons (historic) in Onondaga Valley. 



The writer has also made extensive investigations in this section, 



correcting some errors, and gives, in the following notes, the results of 



his labors and reading. The localities mentioned will be found on the 



accompanying chart. 



OSWEGO COUNTY. 



At Fulton, on the east side of the Oswego Eiver, were the remains 

 of a European earthwork, constructed in the French war, and of a 

 semicircular aboriginal fort. The other portions were removed in mak- 

 ing the canal. Here was a noted portage. Bone Hill, now leveled, 

 on the west side of the river, contained large quantities of human.bones, 

 and about Lake Neawantha were many arrows. 



1. On the line dividing the towns of Volney and Schroepptd was an 



