S4 A B O R I G 1 N A L MO N U M E N 'r S F N K VV Y O R K . 



" Probably the work was encircled with palisades, but no traces of the wood 

 were discoverable. The situation was very eligible, elevated, commanding a fine 

 prospect, and having no eminence near from which it could be commanded. No 

 implements or utensils have been found, except some fragments of coarse pottery, 

 roughly ornamented. The Indians have a tradition that the family of the Antones, 

 which is supposed to belong to the Tuscarora nation, is the seventh generation 

 from the inhabitants of this fort ; but of its origin they know nothing. 



" There is also a place at Norwich in this county, on a high bank of the river, 

 called ' the Castle,' where the Indians lived at the period of our settlement of the 

 country, and where some vestiges of a fortification appear, but in all probabihty of 

 much more modern date than those at Oxford." 



In Greene township, about two miles below the village, was formerly a mound of 

 some interest. It was situated about thirty rods back from the bank of the Che- 

 nango River, and was originally about six feet in height and forty in diameter. 

 " Until within a few years a large pine stump stood on its top, and a variety of 

 trees covered it when first discovered. One of these showed two hundred conse- 

 cutive growths. An examination of the mound was made in 1829 by excavation. 

 Great numbers of human bones were found ; and beneath them, at a greater depth, 

 others were found which had evidently been burned. No conjecture could be 

 formed of the number of bodies deposited here. The skeletons were found lying 

 without order, and so much decayed as to crumble on exposure. At one point in 

 the mound a large number, perhaps two hundred, arrow-heads were discovered, 

 collected in a heap. They were of the usual form, and of yellow or black flint. 

 Another pile, of sixty or more, was found in another place, in the same mound; 

 also a silver band or ring, about two inches in diameter, wide but thin, and with 

 what appeared to be the remains of a reed pipe within it. A number of stone 

 gouges or chisels, of different shapes, and a piece of mica, cut in the form of a 

 heart, the border much decayed and the laminae separated, were also discovered."* 



It may be mentioned here, that the character of the lower deposit, and also some 

 of the relics, coincide with some of those found in the mounds of the Mississippi 

 Valley. The ancient mound-builders often burned their dead. The upper and 

 principal collection of bones had probably a comparatively late date, as is shown 

 by the silver bracelet, which, it is presumed, although not so expressly stated, was 

 found with this deposit. 



Annals of Binghampton, 



