THE MUSEUM. 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. II. 



ALBION, N. Y., SEPTEMBER 15, 1896. 



No. 1 1 



Notes from the Mohawk's 

 Countrv. 



p. M. VAN EPPS. 



(IX.) 



TOU-.-^R-E-U-NA. 



Dr. C. C. Abbott in his valuable 

 work Primitive Industry speaks of a 

 neighborhood in Salem Co., New Jer- 

 sey, noted for the extraordinary num- 

 ber and beauty of the implements that 

 have been left there by the aborigines. 

 The same remarks could very justly be 

 applied to a tract of hilly country ly- 

 ing a few miles west from Schenectady 

 on the north side of the Mohawk. 

 This slaty torrent-gullied upland, the 

 ancient Touareuna of the Mohawks, 

 must certainly have been a most choice 

 hunting ground for the red-man a re- 

 markable number of e.xtra large and 

 choice arrow and spear-heads having 

 been brought under my notice from 

 the surface finds on the cultivated 

 lauds of the region. 



Now as the number of relics that 

 have escaped attention is probably 

 very great; many having been found in 

 former years to be afterwards scattered 

 and again lost, while doubtless very 

 many more are yet concealed in the 

 soil as large portions of the surface are 

 still wooded, so it is evident that the 

 proportion of implements known, to 

 those scattered and yet hidden in this 

 region, is likely very small. 



Like elsewhere in this valley, so in 



this region the larger part of the relics 

 found by the farmers are picked up in 

 the spring months while cultivating 

 and working over the fields plowed 

 during a preceding fall. The snows of 

 winter and the spring rains leaving all 

 the stones and pebbles on the surface 

 clean and free from dirt. Under such 

 conditions any relics present are easily 

 noticed. An even dozen of flint points 

 procured this season from a small area 

 of this tract presents examples ranging 

 in length from 4| inches down to if 

 inches. In shape this lot shows many 

 types from the acutely pointed dagger 

 shaped arrow-head to the triangular 

 and oval forms with both notched and 

 unnotched- bases. A table of meas- 

 urements of the lot is appended. 



I should consider all of these chip- 

 ped points as arrow-heads excepting 

 the three first in the list which were 

 probably used as spear-heads, although 

 number two, notwithstanding its length 

 ('3j inches) would have been none too 

 heavy to be used as an arrow-head for 

 striking game at short range weighing 

 as it does but a triiie over an ounce. 



I am well aware that some would 

 not agree with me in this matter. Mr, 

 Fowke in his paper Stone Art in the 

 13th Annual of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, says: 



' 'The largest stone arrow-point in the 

 extensive collection of arrows in the 

 Mohawk Museum measures two and 

 five-eighths inches in length and is 

 narrow and thin. An arrowpoint two 

 inches in length is seldom seen." 



