February 5, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



17 



lages, whose stockades, if there were such, have left no 

 traces. Strictly, a part of the earthworks in the western part 

 of Onondaga County belong to this, though forming a small 

 group by themselves. ' For present purposes it is easier to 

 class them with the next. 



The Onondaga group, which I have long studied in all its 

 parts, is of high interest. The Elbridge earthworks, to which 

 I have alluded, are all prehistoric, and are allied to another 

 small group towards the Oswego River. These are circular, 

 and between them occurs a small group of circular stockades, 

 near the Seneca Eiver. All are of Iroquoian character, yet 

 very different from the forts of the Onondagas, who settled 

 iu the south-east part of the county three hundred years ago. 

 This county affords seven earthworks, eight stockades, and 

 two burial mounds. The earthworks and stockades are both 

 early and recent, the later stockades being generally angular. 

 Part of Madison County belongs to this group, and in this is 

 found the earliest fort of the true Onondagas, occupied about 

 A.D. 1600. Oswego County forms part of the same group, 

 but has few villages. Three earthworks and one mound 

 occurred near the Oswego River. 



The Oneidas occupied Madison more than Oneida County, 

 and in the former have been reported one earthwork and 

 five stockades. Some historic forts may have left no traces. 

 There are many recent villages, but few early. Oneida 

 County affords few remains, though there are some early 

 hamlets north of the Mohawk and west of Utica. 



The Mohawk group is mainly in Montgomery county, 

 with one large village in Fulton, of about A.D. 1600, one of 

 the two earliest Mohawk towns. In Montgomery there are 

 some early camps and one earthwork. All the villages ex- 

 cept the last mentioned are recent, but the traces of their 

 stockades are lost. The earthwork seems barely prehis- 

 toric. 



The Jefferson County group is strictly prehistoric, and 

 may be compared with the Chautauqua. It seems to have 

 been the early home of the Onondagas, the Mohawks com- 

 ing from lower down the St. Lawrence. There are thirty- 

 three earthworks, two burial mounds, and six ossuaries, be- 

 sides obliterated sites. The monads reported at Perch Lake 

 are foundations of circular lodges. 



A smaller group is in St. Lawrence County, where there 

 are eight earthworks, and possibly related to these are a few 

 nearly opposite in Canada. These two small groups, how- 

 ever, are quite a distance apart. 



Detached from these groups, Chemung, Chenango, Otsego, 

 Suffolk, and Tioga, have one earthwork each, and Delaware 

 three. Queens has two stockades, and there are historical 

 notices of many stockades along the Hudson, of which no 

 traces remain. Chenango County had one mound, and 

 Franklin two. Columbia and some other counties had stone 

 heaps accumulating within historic times. The remaining 

 counties have sometimes points of archeeologlcal interest, but 

 mainly in a minor way. 



It must not be supposed that groups of works indicate 

 always a number of contemporaneous villages, though this 

 was sometimes the case. The Hurons, in Canada, had many 

 towns ; so had the Fries and Senecas in New York. The 

 Onondagas, however, had generally one large and one small 

 village at a time, and this was the case with the Oneidas. 

 The Mohawks commenced with two, but soon had three or 

 four. These were often removed, and a number of forts will 

 often show the line of a nation's march. 



As far as the interior of the State is concerned, early travel 

 followed the valley of the St. Lawrence in the main, often 



at a considerable distance from the great lakes and river.^ 

 The Mohawk valley was little frequented by early travellers. 

 When they reached the west end of Oneida lake, coming- 

 eastward, they bore to the north, passing down the St. Law- 

 rence, and sometimes into Lake Champlain. Better fishing 

 and hunting may have caused this. For southern vis- 

 itors, the Susquehanna afforded a convenient channel, and 

 eventually the tide of Iroquois migration flowed southward 

 through its valley, founding forts in many parts of the 

 Keystone State. A thousand years ago, however, New York 

 may have had few inhabitants, if any, west of the Hudson 

 River Valley, but was a grand resort for fishermen and 

 hunters. W. M. Beauchamp. 



THE SUPPORT OF MUSEUMS. 



The utilitarian tendency of the American mind and habits 

 of life undoubtedly often stand in the way of that broader 

 culture and advancement, the absence of which in us calls 

 for occasional sneers from our transatlantic cousins. "What 

 is the good of it? " a query which demands an answer setting 

 forth immediate returns that can be expressed in money 

 values or equivalent gain, is too often on the lips of those 

 best able to aid inquiry and research which, for the nonce, 

 appears to have no direct bearing on the physical welfare of 

 mankind. 



These thoughts are occasioned by facts that have but re- 

 cently come to the knowledge of the writer regarding the 

 comparatively very limited means at the command of most 

 of the leading museums of natural history in this country. 

 A gentleman, interested in scientific research, well versed in 

 certain departments, having looked the geographical field 

 over, and coming to the conclusion that certain headwaters 

 of the Amazons at present afford the most unknown and un- 

 explored tropical territory now remaining on the globe, de- 

 cided to give a year or more of his life to exploration in that 

 field. Willing to cast his lot with the natives, to undergo- 

 all forms of deprivation familiar to such travellers, that his 

 expenses might be reduced to a minimum, it seemed to him 

 that there should be no difficulty in obtaining the amount of 

 the bare cost of his journey and the transportation of the tro- 

 phies and valuables he would be able to gather, from some 

 museum in exchange for his entire collections. In his own 

 case, such credit as he might win by scientific and other 

 publications announcing the facts of his discoveries, was 

 quite all that he cared to ask in return for months, perhaps 

 years, of trial and hardship such as few can appreciate and 

 still fewer are able to endure. 



Yet, such is the present impecunious condition of the lead- 

 ing museums in our great cities, that after four months of 

 effort in that direction the would-be explorer has been forced 

 to confess his inability to make arrangements that would 

 enable him to go out under these auspices; and the result 

 must now be, what it has so frequently been before, that his 

 material, with all its wealth of truths for the zoologist, bota- 

 nist, ethnologist, and physicist, will go to London, Berlin, 

 or Vienna. How much longer are Americans going to allow 

 their self denying scientific enthusiasts to be thus weaned, in 

 deed if not in mind, from their natural desire to contribute 

 to their home museums the results of their discoveries? 



This evil does not cover only the field of foreign travel 

 and research. When sums that many men now consider 

 small to be set aside for an evening's reception or entertain- 

 ment are not forthcoming in New York to purchase for her- 

 museum such treasures as the Grote collection of North 



