Aboriginal Monuments and Relics.of New York. 313 
bankment, in such a case, would be an entirely subordinate part 
of the structure. After the introduction of European implements, 
enabling the Indians to plant their pickets more firmly in the 
ground, and to lend them a security before unattainable, the ne- 
cessity for an embankment was in a great degree obviated. We 
may thus account for its absence in their later structures, which 
also underwent some modification of form, suggested by the ex- 
ample or instructions of the whites, or by the new mode of war- 
fare following the introduction of fire-arms. Thus in: the plan 
of the old Seneca fort of Ganundasaga, we find distinct traces 
of the bastion—a feature observable in none of the more ancient 
defences, 
Fam aware that the remnants of the Indian stock which still 
exist in this state, generally profess total ignorance of these works. 
I do not, however, attach much importance to this circumstance. 
When we consider the extreme likelihood of the forgetfulness of 
ancient practices, in the lapse of three hundred years, the lack of 
knowledge upon this point is the weakest of all negative evi- 
dence. Cusick, the Indian, in his so-called ‘* History of the Six 
Nations,” has, no doubt, correctly described the manner in which 
they constructed their early defences. ‘‘’ The manner of making 
a fort: First, they set fire against as many trees as It requires to 
make the enclosure, rubbing off the coals with their stone axes, 
So as to make them burn faster. When the tree falls, they put 
fires to it about three paces apart, and buriit into pieces. hese 
pieces are then brought to the spot required, and set up around, 
according to the bigness of the fort. The earth ts then heaped 
on both sides. ‘The fort has generally two gates, one for passage 
and one to the water.” “The people,” continues Cusick, “ had 
implements with which they made their bows and arrows, 
Their kettles were made of baked clay; their awls and needles 
of sharpened bones; their pipes of baked clay or soft stone; a 
small turtle-shell was used to peel the bark, and a small dry stick 
to make fire by boring it against seasoned wood.” ; 
Colden observes of their defences, as they were constructed in 
his time: “Their castles are generally a square surrounded with 
Palisades, without any bastions or outworks; for, since the gene- 
Tal peace, their villages all lie open.”* _ : ' 
‘In full view of the facts before presented, I am driven to a 
conclusion little anticipated when I started upon my trip of ex- 
erected by the Iroquoisyr their western neighbors, and do not 
Possess an antiquity going very far back of the discovery. Their 
~~ general occurrence upon a line parallel to and not far distant from 
ao * History of the Five Nations, vol. i, p. 9. 
Srconp Serres, Vol. XI, No. 33.—May, 1851. 40 
” 
