NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



are distributed without reference to its shore line, and consequently 

 must be of a date long subsequent to the subsidence of its waters. 



In Jefferson county we find evidences of several ancient cultures, 

 all, so far as I was able to find out, prehistoric. When first explored 

 and settled the region was not occupied by any tribe of Indians, 

 although it was used as a hunting ground by several. To wandering 

 parties of hunters, then, the few scattered historic Indian speci- 

 mens found are probably due, such objects never, to my knowledge, 

 having been found in the original deposits of the village sites. 



Of these cultures, the Iroquoian shows the most numerous and 

 uniform indications. Sites whose specimens proclaim them to have 

 been occupied by this people are found mainly in the hill region, 

 especially in the Rutland Hills east of Watertown, but are occasion- 

 ally found on the lowlands and sometimes directly on the shore. 



Next in importance the Algonkian culture, with pottery like that 

 of Long Island and New Jersey, has left its traces in many camping 

 grounds along the shore and in a few isolated spots inland. 



A certain class of stone implements, women's knives, men's knives 

 and spearheads of rubbed slate, identical with those still made by 

 the Eskimo but decidedly different from the points known to have 

 been made by Iroquois and Algonkian artisans, are found along the 

 valleys of certain streams. These are very rarely found on either 

 Iroquois or Algonkian sites, but when this does happen the specimens 

 are picked up on the surface, not dug out of the pits or refuse 

 deposits. It has been claimed that these may have been left by 

 summer fishing parties of Eskimo, perhaps in very ancient times 

 a theory which I do not think improbable. 



Some mounds, apparently the remains of underground houses but 

 of unknown origin, are to be seen near Perch lake, 1 and near Three 

 Mile bay have been found several unusual burials, including an 

 ossuary with specimens which included a " bird-amulet," a " bar- 

 amulet," a semimonitor stone pipe, four stemmed arrow points, a 

 broad flint knife, a long bone knife with incised zigzag patterns, a 

 pottery vessel, a lot of disk-shaped shell beads and many other 

 objects. Some local archeologists refer this interesting burial place 

 to the Huron, but I doubt this very much for the specimens do not 

 seem Iroquoian. 



The archeology of Jefferson county has attracted considerable 

 attention in times past, Squier especially having devoted considerable 



Beauchamp, Perch Lake Mounds, New York State Mus. Bui. 87. 



