532 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



diameter. At one point within the inclosure a quantity of red earth 

 and burned stone and small fragments of pottery were found, indi- 

 cating that fires had been kept there. At another point was found a 

 compact and solid bed of ancient ashes, several feet across and 

 several inches in thickness. The lapse of time since these ashes were 

 made has deprived them of all alkaline qualities. Pieces of pottery 

 were found at this point as well as at others within the earthwork. 

 The pottery is made of clay or marl and is of a dark reddish color 

 and smooth within. The outside is sometimes nicely ornamented 

 and apparently molded in some kind of a coarse cloth, for the 

 reliefs run in somewhat regular lines with cross depressions upon the 

 specimens found. 



One hundred seventy feet to the southwest across the depression 

 at the south of this earthwork, upon ground 12 feet higher and close 

 to the southern brink of the promontory, is a small, perfectly pre- 

 served earthwork. Its form is an irregular circle. It is distinct and 

 plain the whole distance except for 18 feet in the northwest part, 

 which was plainly a gateway. The ditch upon the outside is well 

 marked and in places deep. The embankment is very distinct and in 

 some places nearly 4 feet high. Trees and large decayed stumps 

 stand on the bank and in the ditch. 



A little over 100 rods south of this fort, upon a level place partly 

 on the farm of Halsey Moon, but principally on that of Sil. Tower, 

 was an extensive circular earthwork 22 rods in diameter east and 

 west and 18 rods north and south. When the locality was first set- 

 tled it was distinct and plain for its whole circumference. As Wil- 

 liam Tower saw it in about 1850 the walls in some places were 2 feet 

 high. When the writer visited the place in October 1891 there were 

 a few faint traces of it. An apple tree had been planted upon one 

 small remnant of the wall that remained unobliterated. Extend- 

 ing to the west of this earthwork from the marshy and higher land 

 across the highway to the west in Elley was a ditch about 45 rods 

 long. When William Tower first saw this ditch it was from 18 

 inches to 2 feet deep and visible the whole distance but now there 

 is visible only a few feet of it. Probably this ditch was used to 

 carry water into this fortification. 



Between the two forts and nearest the largest one on William 

 Towter's and Moon's farm is a singular and isolated knoll of an 

 oval symmetrical shape, 20 rods long, 15 rods wide and 30 feet 

 high. It is a natural formation. Around it and in and around these 

 earthworks have been found relics of stone and pottery, and also 

 caches and hearths. William Tower has a variety of interesting 



