GENESEE COUNTY — EARTHWORKS, ETC. 47 



pal gateway (a), leading into the enclosure from the east, according to the state- 

 ment of an intelligent aged gentleman, who was among the earliest settlers in this 

 region, traces of oaken palisades were found, upon excavation, some thirty years ago. 

 They were, of course, almost entirely decayed. A part of the area is still covered 

 with the original forest, in which are trees of the largest dimensions. An oaken 

 stump upwards of two feet in diameter stands upon the embankment at the point b. 



About one mile northeast of this work was originally a large enclosure, but 

 which is now entirely destroyed. It was called the " Bone Fort,'''' from the circum- 

 stance that the early settlers found within it a mound, six feet in height by thirty 

 at the base, which was entirely made up of human bones slightly covered with 

 earth. A few fragments of these bones, scattered over the surface, alone mark the 

 site of the aboriginal sepulchre. The popular opinion concerning this accumula- 

 tion is, that it contained the bones of the slain, thus heaped together after some 

 severe battle. It will, however, be seen that it probably owed its origin to the 

 same practice to which we are to attribute the " bo?ie pits " found elsewhere, that 

 of collecting together at stated intervals the bones of the dead — a practice very 

 prevalent among the northwestern Indians. 



There is no doubt but this is one of the works visited by Rev, Samuel Kirkland, 

 Missionary to the Senecas, in 1788. His MS. Journal was in the possession of 

 Messrs. Yates and Moulton, who have given a synopsis of the part relating to this 

 group of remains in the subjoined passages. 



" Having examined the works (already referred to, in Monroe county) on the 

 Genesee, he returned to Kanawageas, and resumed his journey west, encamping for 

 the night at a place called Joaika, i. e. Raccoon (Batavia), on the river Tonawande, 

 about twenty-six miles from Kanawageas. Six miles from this place of encamp- 

 ment, he rode to the open fields, and arrived at a place called by the Senecas 

 Tegatainedaghgiie, which imports a ' doiihle-fortijied town,'' or a town with a fort 

 at each end. Here he walked about half a mile with one of the Seneca chiefs, to 

 view the vestiges of this double-fortified town. They consisted of the remains of 

 two forts : the first contained four acres of ground ; the other, distant about two 

 miles, at the other extremity of the ancient town, enclosed about eight acres. The 

 ditch around the first was about five or six feet deep. A small stream of water 

 and a high bank circumscribed nearly one third of the enclosed ground. There 

 were traces of six gates or openings, and near the centre a way was dug to the 

 water. The ground on the opposite side of the water was in some places nearly 

 as high as that on which the fort was built, which might render this covered way 

 to the water necessary. A considerable number of large thrifty oaks had grown 

 up within the enclosed ground, both in the ditch and upon the wall ; some of which 

 appeared to be two hundred years old or more. The ground is of a hard, gravelly kind, 

 intermixed with loam, and more plentifully at the brow of the hill. At some places 

 at the bottom of the ditch, Mr. Kirkland ran his cane a foot or more in the soil ; 

 from which circumstance he concludes that the ditch was much deeper originally. 



" Near the western fortification, which was situated on high ground, he found 

 the remains of a funeral pile, where the slain were buried after a great battle, 



