204 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



" Nor is it necessary to assume that high water, then as now, covered the 

 swamp in the spring. The lay of the land and the observations of the settlers 

 for the last seventy-five years clearly show that the creek formerly washed the 

 high bank seen in the accompanying sketch, and that it gradually has been filling 

 in. Indeed, every few years the Victory Mills Company are obliged to dredge 

 out the creek to keep the supply of water from failing. This tallies also with 

 my own observation ; for a spot in the middle of the creek over which, fifteen 

 years since, my old schoolmate, W. S. Mersereau, and myself anchored our boat 

 in ten feet of water, has now become a bank of mud rising a foot above the 

 water. The rapidity of this filling-in process would seem to show that when the 

 wall was erected, it was built in the shallow water of the stream a supposition 

 which makes the use to which the enclosure was put, as above hinted, still more 

 probable. 



" The singular stones briefly described suggest by their positions the pur- 

 , poses they served. The one last mentioned was probably the post to which the 

 Indians made fast their chain of canoes stretching diagonally across the stream, 

 when engaged in beating back and preventing the fish from running up and past 

 the opening in the weir (see map). The other larger stone (within the weir) 

 may have been used by the Indians in time of war or alarm, to secure and pro- 

 tect their fleet of war-canoes, by attaching them with thongs to this firmly-im- 

 bedded rock. Thus these works would secure their fleet from sudden attack or 

 surprise, until their forces could rally from the hill and prevent their capture 

 the high bluffs, covered with large oaks, securing protection to the defenders of 

 the weir. This work, therefore, may have served a double purpose, viz., to catch 

 fish during peace, and as a harbor and place of protection for their canoes in 

 time of war. When, however, the slate reefs were worn away below in the bed 

 of the creek, and the water gradually subsided to its present limits, these works 

 became useless and were consequently abandoned. There are abundant evidences 

 to show that at one time Saratoga Lake (the source of Fish Creek) was twenty 

 to thirty feet higher. 



" I offer these suggestions because, in the present stage of archaeological 

 investigation, any fact that throws light upon the customs and habits of the for- 

 mer inhabitants of this country must be of value." 



There are probably similar structures in this country, which have not yet 

 attracted the attention of observers. 



REPRESENTATIONS OF FISHES, AQUATIC MAMMALS, ETC. 



In the first part of this work I have reproduced a series of designs of fishes 

 and aquatic mammals, executed by the cave-men of Europe, and bearing witness 



