P 
indications of aboriginal dwellings are precisely similar, and, so 
far as can be discovered, have equal claim to antiquity. Near 
ancient date, they were not only secondarily but generally oceu- 
pied by the Iroquois or neighboring and contemporary nations; 
or else—and this hypothesis is most consistent and reasonable— 
they were erected by them. 
The questions by whom were the aboriginal monuments of 
Western New York erected, and to what era may they be~as- 
cribed, have probably been answered to the satisfaction of every 
mind by the simple detail of facts in the preceeding chapters. _ 
It may be objected that if the Indians construeted works of 
this kind, it could not have escaped the notice of the early eX 
plorers, and would have been made the subject of remark by 
the he omission is singular, but not unaccountable: . They 
all speak of the defences of the Indians as composed of | 
firmly set in the ground. ‘The simple circumstance of the 
being heaped up around them, to lend them greater firmness, | 
may have been regarded as so natural and simple an expedient, 
as not to be deserving of special mention, particularly as the em- 
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