64 FOSSIL MEN. 



the discovery of America seems but the completion of 

 a great intrusive movement breaking up the tribes 

 which had previously replaced and mixed with the 

 Alleghans, or which had perhaps been allies of theirs 

 on the north, partially impregnated with their culture 

 and pursuing their industries long after they were 

 cut off. It accords with this that there is a very 

 strong resemblance of detail between the arts and 

 implements of the Eries, Hurons, and Hochelagans, 

 indicating a close connection at that traditional time 

 when their towns and villages occupied the wide 

 regions afterwards seized by their enemies the Iro- 

 quois. 



" Many hundred years ago/' said an aged Iroquois 

 chief, in accounting to an American antiquarian * for 

 the many ancient forts scattered over western New 

 York, " a long war occurred between the Iroquois and 

 other powerful nations, during which many fortifica- 

 tions, often stockaded and enclosing villages, were 

 built throughout all this region, but their enemies 

 were finally repulsed, and passed far to the south- 

 west." Whether this legend refers to the expulsion 

 of the Eries and their allies, which happened as late as 

 1655, or to the far earlier expulsion of the Alleghans, 

 or whether it includes a mixture of both, it would 

 perhaps be impossible to say. " The traditions of the 

 Delawares," says Dr. Wilson, " hold that the Alleghans 

 were a strong and mighty nation, reaching to the 

 eastern shores of the Mississippi, when in remote 

 * Cheney, " Eeport on Monuments of New York." 



