CHAPTER VI. 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 



By whom were the aboriginal monuments of Western New York erected, and to 

 what era may they be ascribed ? The consideration of these questions has given 

 rise to a vast amount of speculation, generally not of the most philosophical, nor 

 yet of the most profitable kind. If the results arrived at have been erroneous, 

 unsatisfactory, or extravagant, it may be ascribed to the circumstance that the facts 

 heretofore collected have been too few in number and too poorly authenticated 

 to admit of correct conclusions, not less than to the influence of preconceived 

 notions, and to that constant leaning towards the marvellous, which is a radical 

 defect of many minds. Rigid criticism is especially indispensable in archaeolo- 

 gical investigations ; yet there is no department of human research in which so 

 wide a range has been given to conjecture. Men seem to have indulged the 

 belief that here nothing is fixed, nothing certain, and have turned aside into this 

 field as one where the severer rules which elsewhere regulate philosophical 

 research are not enforced, and where every species of extravagance may be 

 indulged in with impunity. I might adduce numberless illustrations of this remark. 

 The Indian who wrought the rude outlines upon the rock at Dighton, little 

 dreamed that his work would ultimately come to be regarded as affording indu- 

 bitable evidence of Hebrew, Phoenician, and Scandinavian adventure and coloni- 

 zation in America ; and the builders of the rude defences of Western New York, 

 as little suspected that Celt and Tartar, and even the apochryphal Madoc with his 

 " ten ships," would, in this the nineteenth century of our faith, be vigorously 

 invoked to yield paternity to their labors ! 



The probable purposes to which these works were applied are perhaps suffi- 

 ciently evident from what has already been presented. Their positions, general 

 close proximity to water, and other circumstances not less conclusive, imply a 

 defensive origin. The unequivocal traces of long occupancy found vv'ithin many 

 of them, would further imply that they were fortified towns and villages, and were 

 permanently occupied. Some of the smaller ones, on the other hand, seem rather 

 designed for temporary protection, — the citadels in which the builders sought safety 

 for their old men, women, and children, in case of alarm or attack. 



In respect to date nothing positive can be affirmed. Many of them are now 

 covered with heavy forests ; a circumstance upon which too much importance has 

 been laid, and which in itself may not necessarily be regarded as indicative of 

 great age, for we may plausibly suppose that it was not essential to the purposes 

 of the builders that the forests should be removed. Still I have seen trees from 

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