308 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Both Beauchamp and the Ethnology Bureau reports speak of pits 

 in and near the fort, and the latter says they contained nothing but 

 fine gravel. I saw none of these, but within the fort postholing 

 brought to light several pits. Pit I was 38 inches deep and 4 feet in 

 diameter with a dense charred layer at the bottom. Here were 

 potsherds from a number of jars of different sizes, two worked 

 stones resembling hematite, and some chipped flints. Pit 2, nearby, 

 was 31 inches deep and contained a few potsherds, together with 

 mammal and fish bones and charred corn. Pit 3 was irregular in 

 shape and about 2 feet deep with a very black layer at the bottom 

 containing much charred corn and cobs. There were a few pot- 

 sherds in this pit. 



Among the articles that have been found here in past years by 

 local collectors and that were picked up by members of the expedi- 

 tion dur'ng our two days' stay are arrow points, both triangular and 

 stemmed, broad shallow stone mortars, pestles, celts and celt-adzes, 

 pitted stones, hammerstones, a notched hammer, a rubbed, not 

 chipped, slate point, potsherds and several terra-cotta pipes decorated 

 with incised chevron patterns. 



The pottery found here is unusually interesting on account of its 

 wide variation from the type found at Silverheels site, Double Wall 

 Fort and later at the village and burial site at Ripley. The pottery 

 common to these latter localities is characteristically Iroquoian, the 

 jars having globular bodies with round bottoms and constricted 

 necks, above which there is a projecting rim, the edge often rising 

 in one or more peaks. This rim is usually decorated with incised 

 lines, especially at the peaks. The general surface as a rule is smooth 

 without " fabric " marking and with hardly any trace of the 

 modeling tool. But at the Sheridan site it was very different. Here 

 the pottery had no raised rim, little or no constricted neck, was gen- 

 erally " fabric " marked and seldom showed any attempt at decora- 

 tion. The pipes also, as nearly as could be gathered from descrip- 

 tion, were also more Algonkian than Iroquoian in character. These 

 facts, together with the occurrence of both shapes of arrowheads 

 and the slate point, led me to consider whether the site might not 

 be Algonkian. I even took the abundant flat stone mortars so com- 

 mon in the New York Algonkian region as an indication of this ; but 

 these were afterward found in numbers on the characteristic Iro- 

 quoian site at Ripley. On the other hand, the presence of celt-axes 

 to the exclusion of grooved axes, and the use of the ossuary men- 

 tioned in both books cited, seem to connect the band with Iroquoianj 

 stock in spite of the pottery. The site is probably prehistoric; 



