ABORIGINAL CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK I I 



be but a few rods, but often it was many miles. They wished not 

 only strong positions, but situations where canoes could not reach 

 them. This was always the case in warlike times, and the position 

 of the town will often show confidence or fear. Their permanent 

 homes also depended to some extent upon the soil, being a corn 

 raising people; and in fact nearly all camps of others as well were 

 placed on a light, and not a heavy soil. Very rarely indeed did other 

 considerations outweigh this. Iroquois villages are thus not to be 

 expected in regions characterized by primitive rocks; a glance at a 

 map showing the indian sites of New York and Canada, will make 

 apparent how much their location was affected by geological con- 

 ditions. 



The Algonquin tribes built palisaded forts in the eastern part of 

 New York, somewhat like those of the Iroquois, and their long 

 houses are reported to have been even longer than those of the latter. 

 Earthworks here, however, were nearly all defenses of the Iroquoian 

 family, and yield abundant earthenware. Some of these are quite 

 recent, and in these are observed suggestions of a knowledge of 

 European articles, soon followed by the articles themselves. These 

 later sites, usually simple stockades, have often done a work similar 

 to that of the Rosetta stone, but in another way. Knowing their 

 age, and finding aboriginal relics on them of peculiar kinds, we are 

 able to give the approximate age of similar articles elsewhere. In 

 this will be found one great advantage of studying some New York 

 sites, an advantage not confined in its results to our own borders. 



One important question relates to the Eskimo. It will appear 

 that some articles now used only by them are frequent in the northern 

 part of Xew York, along with others which suggest their occasional 

 presence. It is well known, also, that they once lived much farther 

 south than now, and it may yet appear that they were sometimes 

 visitors here. Rash conclusions arc- to be avoided, but so much is 

 known as to call for further light. 



It is to be deplored that such quantities of our finest relies are 

 forever lost to the state, but this is a lament in which every part of our 

 land shares. Enough remains to give us some idea of the arts 

 perhaps of the habits and history — of our predecessors. Although so 



