94 PROCEEDINGS S. I. ASs'n ARTS AND SCIENCES. [VOL. I 



Magrg-ie's creeks, were much frequented by the aborigfines. Most of 

 the timber has been cut from these sand hills, some of which are now 

 under cultivation, while others have lapsed into a semi-wild condition. 

 Where the timber is gone the sand is shifted about by the wind and 

 rain, and the arrowheads and other stone implements, that once be- 

 longed to the Indians, are thus brought to view. 



While Mr. Alanson Skinner and I were looking for implements last 

 year we noticed on the side of one of these sand hills several pieces of 

 chert that had been split from the original mass of rock by some Indian, 

 for they bore evidence of preparation and all were of the proper size for 

 making arrowheads. Upon digging into the sand the 75 pieces of 

 chert here exhibited were found together, where they had evidently 

 been buried long ago by some Indian, who had failed to call for them. 

 Most of the flints are about two inches long and from one-half to three- 

 quarters of an inch in thickness, and in many instances the sides and 

 ends have been squared off. It is evident from an inspection of the 

 collection that the arrowhead manufacturer would be obliged to make 

 points of very different shapes; he would clip out long and slim arrow- 

 heads or broad and triangular ones according to the chert in hand. 



The interest in these prepared stones does not lie in the work be- 

 stowed upon them, though some skill was used in splitting them from 

 the original mass of rock, but rather are they interesting from the fact 

 of their having been buried together and thus exhibiting at this late 

 day a custom of safe deposit storage by their one-time owner. 



Mr. James Chapin exhibited a skin of the northern pine mouse and 

 one of the common meadow mouse, for comparison, and read the 

 following memorandum: 



A STATEN ISLAND RECORD FOR THE NORTHERN FINE MOUSE. 



Although originally described from Long Island, where it is said to 

 be abundant, and having a range extending from Connecticut to 

 Illinois, the northern pine mouse, Microtus pinetorum scalopsoides Aud. 

 and Bach., has been captured but once on Staten Island, as far as I can 

 ascertain. This first specimen was found dead in a field at Woodrow, 

 by Mr. Isaac E. Wort, on January 6, 1907. The pine mouse is said to 

 dislike stony, wet, ar clayey soils,, because of the difficulty of burrow- 

 ing in them, and for this reason it probably inhabits only those parts 

 of Staten Island where a sandy sail predomiinates, as at Tottenville, 

 Rossville, and Watchogue; but careful search in those localities would 

 perhaps show it ta be quite common there. 



