12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



down trees with villainous axes, which they sometimes got in war, 

 and others of stone, and fortified themselves very securely/ 



Usually, according to David Cusick, fire was applied to trees, 

 and when these were felled, fresh fires were kindled where these 

 were to be cut off in lengths. The fire was the active agent; the 

 celt or stone axe was employed in scraping away the charred wood. 

 Each woman had several fires to attend, and the work was done 

 quite rapidly. At Onondaga now, the Indians use the same means 

 in hollowing out the large wooden mortars still used by them. Burn- 

 ing and chipping go on alternately, a process familiar to our own 

 early settlers. 



The mode of handling is of interest, but was not always the same, 

 and many ways have been described. Fig. i presents one remarkable 

 and antique example. It is a celt of the common rounded form found 

 in the peat and muck at Chittenango Creek long ago, seven feet 

 under ground. It is the only ancient handle locally preserved, and 

 has suffered much from age yet it is still fifteen and one half inches 

 long by two and one quarter broad. It tapers from the axe to the 

 end of the handle. The orifice in this is shown at b, and has evi- 

 dently been finished, at least, by heat. In this the fine greenstone 

 celt, elliptical in section, exactly fits. This is five and three eighths 

 inches long and two wide, the form being quite common. It was 

 dug up in excavating for the canal feeder. 



Fig. 2 is an angular form of brown sandstone, found in the town 

 of Cicero, four and five eighths inches long by two and one eighth 

 wide. This form seems more frequent in New York than else- 

 where, and is from four to six sided in its varieties, the angles 

 never being rounded. One of the surfaces is always broad and 

 flat, and two of them meet the others at a broad angle. They are 

 somewhat common at Onondaga and Oneida lakes. 



Fig. 4 is of an unusual form and material, being a very broad and 

 flat celt of green striped slate, three and three quarters by three and 

 one eighth inches. The outline is much like that of a modern axe, 

 and it is much twisted in section. This was found, with a similar 

 one, at Jack's Rifts, on the Seneca River. 



Fig. 6 is a chisel of brown sandstone, almost cylindric, but with 

 several flattened sides. These sides are nearly parallel. It is five 



