126 



THE MUSEUM 



this region, their fondness for lakes is 

 well known to all who have ever had 

 occasion to search for relics, as at 

 nearly every small lake can be found 

 remains of camp or village-sites. That 

 during theMohawk's time a considerable 

 sheet of open water yet remained in 

 the Consalus swamp seems highly evi- 

 dent. At any rate it is certain that the 

 place was resorted to by some primi- 

 tive people; if not by the Mohawks 

 then by their predecessors, possibly by 

 the men who constructed the ancient 

 hearth found lying on a bed of glacial 

 clay at a depth of fourteen feet below 

 the surface at Saratoga Springs. Mr. 

 Hawley McWilliam has done some in- 

 teresting work in this locality. He has 

 located a camp- site on the eastern 

 shore-border of the former lake and 

 has hopes of finding one on the west- 

 ern margin as certain indications lately 

 noted would seem to denote that such 

 a site exists, and to his efforts do we 

 owe the preservation and association 

 of the numerous surface finds of the 

 immediate vicinity. The major por- 

 tion of these objects have been dis- 

 closed by the plow, and among them 

 we will now and then meet with a 

 specimen whose material and work- 

 manship would seem to lend color to 

 the idea that the lacustral occupation 

 of the region was pre-Mohawk. Not- 

 ably among these latter I would men- 

 tion a chipped and polished celt of 

 flint, such being of the most extreme 

 rarity in the Mohawk Valley; an extra 

 large spear-head worked from a piece 

 of beautiful smoky quartz, and sundry 

 other objects differing somewhat from 

 the common type of implements and 

 weapons found everywhere in the Mo- 

 hawk \'alley. 



IMPLEMENT OF YELLOW JASPER. 



(I) 



The cut shows at half-size a leaf- 

 shaped implement chipped from a 

 beautiful yellow jasper of firm texture. 

 This object was found in association 

 with a few fiint implements near the 

 northern margin of the vlaie in the 

 town of Galway. Such objects of 

 jasper are, in general, only remarkable 

 for the material whence fashioned and 

 differ but little in general form from 

 the ordinary types of fiint objects. A 

 description of the above figured imple- 

 ment and others, with notes on the oc- 

 currence of jasper implements in this 

 region were published by the author in 

 Vol.H fhc Arcliceologist, pages 29-30. 

 I^ut in the absence of other data, and 

 taken alone, these few objects in their 

 uniqueness offer us no direct proof as 

 to an occupation of the region by any 

 people previous to the coming of the 

 Mohawks. They may be only oddities 

 or exotics procured by barter, or as 

 trophies of battle. Better proof in 

 this line might be had could the ap- 

 proximate time of the closing of the 

 lake be worked out, and possibly by a 

 thorough examination of the contig- 

 uous camp-sites; for as yet the investi- 

 gation of these has been but super- 

 ficial. 



During the summer of 1890 an in- 

 teresting "find" was made by Mr. Mc- 

 William at a point but a short distance 

 from the camp-site mentioned as beino;. 



