82 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



one to three feet in diameter standing upon the embankments and in the trenches ; 

 which would cei-tainly tarry back the date of their construction several hundred 

 years, perhaps beyond the period of the discovery in the fifteenth century. There 

 is nothing, however, in this circumstance, nor in any other bearing upon the sub- 

 ject, which would necessarily imply that they were built by tribes anterior to 

 those found in occupation of the country by the whites. And this brings us at 

 once to the most interesting point of our inquiry, viz : By whom were these works 

 erected ? 



I have already mentioned that within them are found many relics of art and 

 many traces of occupancy. These, I had ample opportunities of ascertaining in 

 the course of my investigations, are absolutely identical with those which mark 

 the sites of towns and forts known to have been occupied by the Indians, within 

 the historical period. The pottery taken from these sites and from within the 

 supposed ancient enclosures, is alike in all respects ; the pipes and ornaments are 

 undistinguishable ; and the indications of aboriginal dwellings are precisely similar, 

 and, so far as can be discovered, have equal claim to antiquity. Near many of 

 these works are found cemeteries, in which well-preserved skeletons are con- 

 tained, and which, except in the absence of remains of European art, differ in 

 no essential respect from the cemeteries found in connection with the abandoned 

 "modern towns and " castles " of the Indians. There are other not less important 

 facts and coincidences, all of which go to establish that if the earth-works of 

 Western New York are of a remote ancient date, they were not only secondarily but 

 generally occupied by the Iroquois or neighboring and contemporary nations ; or 

 else — and this hypothesis is most consistent and reasonable — they were erected 

 by them. 



The questions by whom were the aboriginal monuments of Western New York 

 erected, and to what era may they be ascribed, have probably been answered to 

 the satisfaction of every mind by the simple detail of facts in the preceding 

 chapters. 



It may be objected that if the Indians constructed works of this kind, it could 

 not have escaped the notice of the early explorers, and would have been made the 

 subject of remark by them. The omission is singular, but not unaccountable. 

 They all speak of the defences of the Indians as composed of palisades firmly set 

 in the ground. The simple circumstance of the earth being heaped up around 

 them, to lend them greater firmness, may have been regarded as so natural and 

 simple an expedient, as not to be deserving of special mention, particularly as the 

 embankment, in such a case, would be an entirely subordinate part of the struc- 

 ture. After the introduction of European implements, enabling the Indians to 

 plant their pickets more firmly in the ground, and to lend them a security before 

 unattainable, the necessity for an embankment was in a great degree obviated. 

 We may thus account for its absence in their later structures, which also under- 

 went some modification of form, suggested by the example or instructions of the 

 whites, or by the new modes of warfare following the introduction of fire-arms. 

 Thus in the plan of the old Seneca fort of Ganandasaga, we find distinct traces of 

 the bastion — a feature observable in none of the more ancient defences. 



