258 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Indications of an Earthwork 



Excavations were not carried on long before enough evidence 

 was secured to point out the former presence of a circular earth 

 ring in the village section. This ring seems to have inclosed the 

 main portion of the village and to have separated it from a group 

 of pits and lodge sites to the south. Just beyond pits 26, 27, 78 and 

 79 the soil became very- hard and compact and the occupied soil 

 covered with a layer of sand and gravel. The earth in the center of 

 this belt was hard and compact. It was evidently disturbed and 

 intermixed but exhibited few signs of modification by the sub- 

 stances incident to human occupation, such as ashes and charcoal. 

 A few inches of the disturbed subsoil overlay the occupied soil on 

 either side of the barren belt. From these facts it was inferred that 

 at some time an earth ring or wall had been leveled down and the 

 earth of which it was composed thrown over the occupied soil. 

 The outline of the belt was traced and found to be circular in form, 

 or rather 'crescentic, the ends of the belt touching the lake bank. 

 The original form had undoubtedly been circular, the encroaching 

 lake having undermined the cliffs w r hich, falling, had carried away a 

 part of the village site and with it the missing portion of the ring. 



The soil most modified by the occupation, that is to say, the top 

 soil most deeply stained and intermixed with waste products of 

 aboriginal activities, was that part embraced within the area of the 

 dirt ring. Just outside this ring there was another occupied layer 

 but it did not extend far. Some time after the discovery of the 

 former presence of the earth wall, on September 4th, Mr George 

 Morse, an old settler, visited the scene of the operations and intro- 

 duced himself as one of the pioneers of Chautauqua county, and as 

 a man who in his boyhood remembered the site and its features. 

 Mr Morse made a verbal statement to the archeologist which was 

 taken down verbatim. 



The earth ring is found in many places in western New York and 

 elsewhere and is the base upon which a line of sharpened stakes or 

 palisades was placed to fortify the inclosure. This being true, the 

 village here must have been within the circular walls of sharpened 

 posts that rose from the earth circle. A number of families prob- 

 ably had lodges outside the fortification. These may have been the 

 less cautious or those who were crowded out through lack of space 

 within the narrow confines of the picket wall. 



