56 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



A short distance from this work, upon the brow of a neighboring elevation, a 

 number of human skeletons have been exposed by the plough. They probably 

 mark the site of an Indian cemetery. A mile to the eastward, upon a dry sandy 

 spot, is another of the " bone-pits " already several times referred to, which is 

 estimated, by those who excavated it originally, to have containedybwr hundred skele- 

 tons heaped promiscuously together. They were of individuals of every age and 

 sex. In the same field are found a great variety of Indian rehcs, also brass cap 

 and belt plates, and other remains of European origin. Not far distant, some lime 

 burners discovered, a year or two since, a skeleton surrounded by a quantity of 

 rude ornaments. It had been placed in a cleft of the rock, the mouth of which 

 was covered by a large flint stone. 



Passing onward in the same direction which we have been pursuing, we come 

 to the Batavia and Buffalo road, the great thoroughfare over which, previous to 

 the construction of the railroad and canal, passed the entire western trade and 

 travel. Here, at a point a few miles from Clarence, known as the " Vandewater 

 Farm," are the traces of another work. A few sections alone remain, barely suf- 

 ficient to indicate that it was of considerable size. The road passes through its 

 centre. 



PLATE XI. No. 2. 



ANCIENT WORK, FISHER's FALLS, NEWSTED TOWNSHIP, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



The sole remaining work in this county which was personally examined by the 

 author is the one here presented. It is situated five miles eastward of the locality 

 last noticed, at a place known as " Fisher's Falls," in the town of Newsted, upon 

 the banks of a creek, at present barbarously designated " Murder Creek." The 

 creek here plunges down into a deep, narrow gorge with precipitate banks, which 

 continues to the edge of the terrace a fourth of a mile distant. The relative posi- 

 tion of the work, which is of large size, is correctly designated on the plan. It 

 is now under cultivation, and is much reduced from its original elevation, but can 

 be traced without diflSculty throughout its extent. The older inhabitants affirm 

 that the walls were originally five feet in height, and the ditch of corresponding 

 proportions. Traces of the ancient caches are yet to be observed ; and without 

 the enclosure is a rock, the surface of which bears a number of artificial depres- 

 sions hollowed out by the Indians, — the rude mortars in which they pounded 

 their corn. 



This work occurs upon the old Indian trail, which extended from the Genesee 

 River to Batavia, and thence to Buffalo and Niagara. A branch of this trail, after 



