2C>8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Not much was to be seen of the fortification merely a nearly 

 obliterated curved bank of earth fencing off a projecting point of 

 the terrace from the rest of the plateau. On a low knoll, forming 

 part of the embankment, though perhaps natural, stands the house 

 of the late Rev. Henry Silverheels, an Indian preacher of some 

 note, now occupied by his daughter and half-breed son-in-law, John 

 Kennedy, who works the land within and about the ancient inclosure. 

 We named this earthwork the " Silverheels site " in honor of its 

 former owner. One can fancy how the embankment must have 

 looked before the plow had made such inroads, by comparison with 

 the other similar ancient forts, farther up Cattaraugus creek, which 

 are mainly in an excellent state of preservation. In these the wall 

 is bordered on the outside by a ditch, the two having a combined 

 height from^the bottom of the latter to top of the former of about 

 5 l /2 to 6 feet. Probably the same condition existed here. 



A brief examination of the site and its surroundings was suffi- 

 cient to show that the spot had been indeed well chosen. Here was 

 a flat-topped point projecting into a swampy portion of the Catta- 

 raugus flood plain a point whose bold steep banks arising from 

 the swamp to a height of 30 feet or more made it easy of defense on 

 all sides but one, and that side had been effectually blocked against 

 a possible enemy by the embankment and the palisade which doubt- 

 less surmounted it in ancient times. Several springs of clear cold 

 water issue from the bluff within 8 feet of the top another con- 

 siderable advantage in time of siege. Not more than half a mile 

 across the flood plain flows Cattaraugus creek, a stream whose 

 shifting course may have been much closer to the fort in former 

 years. This doubtless furnished the tribesmen with abundant fish 

 at the time of the great spring runs, when the stream is full of 

 mullet and catfish from Lake Erie. Game must have been plentiful 

 and corn could well have been raised both on the plateau outside 

 the wall or on the higher levels of the flood plain below, beyond the 

 strip of swamp. Here are also plentiful evidences of former occu- 

 pation and everything seems to point to a contemporaneous habita- 

 tion of the two sites. Perhaps the principal part of the village was 

 situated on the flats, in which case the fort may have served merely 

 as a retreat in times of war and freshet, and as a burial place. The 

 map shown in plate 70 will give some idea of the general surround- 

 ings of the site, while plate 71 gives the details of the. fort itself. 



Upon the surface of the plowed ground within the inclosure were 

 easily distinguished many signs of previous habitation ; arrowheads, 

 flint chippings and rejects, broken celts, bits of pottery and fire- 

 cracked pebbles lay scattered here and there, while the naturally 



