176 



APPENDIX. 



CHENANGO COUNTY. 



It has already been observed that very few entire vessels of aboriginal pottery 

 have been recovered in the State of New York. Their 

 general form is, however, sufficiently evident from the 

 frcigments which cover the site of every ancient town. 

 Figure 53 is a sketch of a vessel or vase found in 

 1811, in Township No. 10, Chenango County. It was 

 buried in the earth, in an inverted position. The 

 capacity was about three quarts. The original draw- 

 ing was published by Dr. Hosack, in the " New York 

 Medical and Philosophical Register" for 1812. The 

 form, as will be seen by reference to the first volume of 

 these Contributions, p. 189, is that which seems to 

 have been common to all the rude tribes within the 

 boundaries of the Northern and Eastern States. A few of the aboriginal vases had 

 bat bottoms, but most were oval or rounded. The groove around them was 

 designed to receive a withe, whereby they could be suspended over the fire. 



USE OF COPPER BY THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 



In the paragraphs relating to St. Lawrence county, mention is made of a sin- 

 gular aboriginal deposite or burial, on the Canadian shore of the St. Lawrence 

 River, near Brockville. Here were found a number of skeletons and a variety of 

 relics, among which were a number of copper implements. They were buried 

 fourteen feet below the surface of the ground. Two of the copper articles were 

 clearly designed as spear-heads : they were pointed, double-edged, and originally 

 capable of some service. One was a foot in length. A couple of copper knives 

 accompanied these, and also an implement which seems to have been designed as 

 a gouge. — {A7icient Monuments of Mississippi Valley, p. 201.) Some implements 

 entirely corresponding with these have been found in Isle Royal, and at other 

 places in and around Lake Superior. Whether or not these are relics of the 

 existing Indian tribes, it is not undertaken to say, although it seems highly pro- 

 bable that they are. That the Indians of Aew England, New York, and Virginia, 

 to a limited extent, possessed copper ornaments and implements at the time of the 

 Discovery, is undoubted ; but it is not to be supposed for an instant that they 

 obtained it by smelting from the ores. They unquestionably procured it from the 

 now well known native deposites around Lake Superior. 



