PALISADED ENCLOSURES. 65 



It occupied a beautiful, broad swell of land, not commanded by any adjacent 

 heights. Upon the west side of the lines is a fine, copious spring ; for which the 

 Indians had constructed a large basin of loose stones. The form and dimensions 

 of the work are given in the accompanying plan. Upon a little elevation to the 

 left, as also in the forest to the northward, are extensive cemeteries. Many 

 articles of comparatively late date are found in the graves. The area of the work 

 was about ten acres. 



Three miles to the eastward formerly existed the traces of a work represented 

 to have been octangular in shape, and of considerable size. It has been wholly 

 obliterated. 



In Queen's county there were, some years ago, traces of aboriginal works, 

 which seem to have differed very slightly from a portion of those just noticed. They 

 are thus described by Judge Samuel Jones, in a notice of the local history of 

 Oyster Bay, written in 1812 : 



" When this part of Long Island was first settled by the Europeans, they found 

 two fortifications in the neighborhood of Oyster Bay, upon a neck of land ever 

 since called, from that circumstance, ' Fort Neck.' One of them, the remains of 

 which are very conspicuous, is on the southernmost point of land on the neck 

 adjoining the Salt Meadow. It is nearly, if not exactly, a square ; each side of 

 which is about one hundred feet in length. The breastwork or parapet is of earth ; 

 and there is a ditch on the outside, which appears to have been about six feet wide. 

 The other was on the southernmost point of the Salt Meadow, adjoining the bay, 

 and consisted of palisades set in the ground. The tide has worn away the meadow 

 where the fort stood, and the place is now part of the bay and covered with water ; 

 but my father has often told me that within his memory part of the palisades were 

 still standing. In the bay, between the Salt Meadow and the beach, are two 

 islands of marsh, called Squaw Islands ; and the uniform tradition among the 

 Indians is, that the forts were erected by their ancestors for defence against their 

 enemies, and that upon the approach of a foe, they sent their women and children 

 to these islands, which were in consequence called Squaw Islands."* 



Examples of this class of aboriginal remains might be greatly multiplied. Those, 

 however, which have already been presented, will serve sufficiently to illustrate 

 their character. In all are found relics corresponding in every particular with 

 those discovered within the walls of the earth-works described in the preceding 

 chapter, but usually with the addition of articles of later date and known European 

 origin. This circumstance is not without its importance in estimating the probable 

 dependence between the two classes of remains. 



* Coll. N. Y. Hist Soc, Vol. HI., p. 33S. 



