CAYUGA C U N T Y — E A R T H . VV R K S , ETC. 37 



PLATE V. No. 2. 



ANCIENT WORK, MENTZ TOWNSHIP, CAYUGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



Six miles northwest of Auburn, and three miles from Troopsville, in the town- 

 ship of Mentz, is the small but well preserved work of which a plan is here given. 

 The country around is hilly, and the work itself is built upon the crest of a nar- 

 row ridge, which extends nearly north and south, and along which the main road 

 passes. There is a hollow, with springs flowing into it, towards the left ; in which 

 direction, it will be observed, a gateway opens. Although the ground has been for 

 many years under cultivation, the lines of embankment are still between two and 

 three feet high. A quantity of relics, some of comparatively late date, have been 

 found here. Some skeletons, also, have been disclosed by the plough, both 

 within and without the walls. The plan obviates the necessity for any further 

 description. 



The existence of this work does not seem to have been hitherto known, beyond 

 the secluded vicinity in which it occurs. It is, however, probable that it is the 

 one alluded to by McCauley in the following very indefinite terms : " On the east 

 side of the Seneca River, near Montezuma, there are still to be seen the ruins of 

 a small fort. A small mound occurs not far from the fort ; it is artificial." Monte- 

 zuma is situated in the same township with the work above described, and about 

 four miles distant, in a northwestern direction. In the " New York Magazine," 

 for 1792, mention is made of a couple of ancient works, said to occur south of 

 Cross and Salt Lakes, east of the Seneca River, and falling probably within the 

 limits of the present township of Brutus, in Cayuga or Elbridge, in Onondaga 

 county. One of these was in the " form of a parallelogram, two hundred and twenty 

 yards long and fifty-five broad, with openings on either side, one of which led to 

 the waters. Half a mile south was another work of crescent form ; large trees were 

 growing upon both." Quantities of well burned pottery in fragments were found 

 there ; also a slab of stone five feet long, three and a half broad, and six inches 

 thick, upon which were some rude tracings, specimens perhaps of the " picture 

 writing " of the Indians. 



McCauley mentions an ancient work near the town of Aurora, in the southern 

 part of this county, and near Cayuga Lake. According to this authority, it was 

 situated " two miles from the village, in a southwesterly direction ; the area trian- 

 gular, and containing two acres. Two of its sides were defended by precipitous 

 banks, and the third by an embankment and ditch. Fragments of earthen vessels 

 and the bones of animals had been found there enveloped in beds of ashes." 



There are traces of an ancient palisaded work of the Cayugas, in Ledyard 

 township, about four miles southeast of Springport. In fact, the whole country 

 has numerous vestiges, cemeteries, etc., of its former aboriginal possessors. 



