72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



more than doubled. At present the congestion of work renders 

 any progress in the preparation of manuscripts, the prompt reply 

 to correspondence or the preparation of descriptive booklets for 

 the cases, cumbersome and difficult. Our work is extensive and 

 urgent but without equipment we can not do what should be done. 

 Thus hampered, we are nevertheless doing all that should be 

 expected. 



The efficiency of our field investigations would be largely 

 increased if the Archeologist or a representative could be stationed 

 in the field when the weather opens up every spring. Proper field 

 work requires actual presence on the field and an uninterrupted 

 and unhampered research. To bring this about there must be an 

 adequate research fund. With this support we should not only be 

 able to obtain an efficient grasp on our field but also make it pro- 

 ductive of far greater results. This is true in both the fields of 

 archeology and ethnology. If the State Museum will not and can 

 not undertake to exploit its field, a field to which it is restricted, 

 other institutions must and will take up the work. During the year 

 field explorations in New York were made by the Museum of the 

 American Indian and by the Andover Academy Expedition, as 

 well as by private collectors. 



Observations. In conducting this section there should be no 

 undue concern about obtaining specimens, the primary aim being 

 to advance the knowledge of our subject, and the secondary pur- 

 pose being to bring back illustrative material. We point out, as an 

 example of this method, the explorations by the Peabody Museum 

 of Harvard, in New York during 1903-6. 



Prehistoric Seneca site. A very important Seneca site, from 

 the standpoint of chronology, examined during the year is that 

 situated on the George Reed farm on the terrace above the Hem- 

 lock lake outlet, near Richmond Mills, New York. During the 

 past seventy-five years this site has been gone over by collectors 

 who have carried off an incredible amount of material. During 

 the past twenty years excavators have been particularly active and 

 so far no object of European origin has been discovered in any 

 pit or refuse heap. 



The Reed Fort site is a sandy arm of the terrace projecting 

 nearly westward into the Hemlock valley. It covers a sloping 

 sandy hill lying between two brooks that have cut deep ravines. 

 The place is a natural fortification since the brooks at the south- 

 west end come within 30 feet of each other, measured from the 



