56 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



have no connection with New York, are not illustrated in this paper. 

 Several colonial and Canadian medals are thus passed over. 



The medal just referred to was found when the Erie canal at 

 Oriskany was enlarged in 1849. Some graves were opened, contain- 

 ing- 10 or 12 skeletons, with ornaments and medals. On one was 

 a head of George i, with the title, George, king of Great Britain, 

 in capitals. On the reverse was an Indian behind a tree, with bow 

 and arrow, shooting at a deer. This part of the account is clear, 

 but some other statements are erroneous. For instance, a medal 

 of George I is said to have been dated in 1731. The other medals 

 were dated from 1731 to 1735. Some of the later Georges used the 

 same design. 



Besides one of these medals from the lower Mohawk valley, some- 

 what indefinitely reported, Mr Conover described one from the 

 Read farm in Seneca, which was taken from the Indian cemetery 

 there, and from which he deduced its age. He described it as " a 

 copper or brass medal of about ij inches in diameter.- On one side 

 of this medal was the representation of an Indian with a bow and 

 arrow in the act of shooting at a deer, a tree being between them,. 

 and the rays of the rising sun being alongside of the top of the tree. 

 On the reverse was a medallion likeness, and around it and near 

 the edge of the circumference the words, George, king of Great 

 Britain. As the reign of George I was from 1714 to 1727, and 

 such tokens were only presented to those Indians who were, of 

 importance among their own people," and this could not be secured 

 in youth, he inferred that it must have been given t@ an old man 



who was buried with it in the first half of that century. As the 



i 



medal might have been preserved in the family, the conclusion does 

 not follow as to the date of the cemetery, as Mr Conover's farther 

 statement shows: 



There has also been lately found what at first seemed a small lead 

 bullet, which had been flattened, but, upon its being cleaned from 

 the dirt and corrosion, it proved to be a leaden seal, such as was 

 used in colonial times, and which had the date of 1767 cut on its face. 



In the above account Mr Conover should have said the obverse 

 had the head of the king, but this is a mere technicality. In the 



