476 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



down the slopes, the clay stratum outcropped. Here the soil was 

 bare or only sparsely covered with grass. 



The entire knoll was covered by a peach and plum orchard (since 

 uprooted) and it was between the rows of trees that work was 

 carried on. The owner naturally objected to carrying the excava- 

 tions too near the roots and thus it was sometimes impossible to 

 take out a skeleton or to open a pit when it lay beneath a tree. In 

 such cases slanting shafts were sunk beneath the roots and the pit 

 examined. This was a, somewhat dangerous operation as some- 

 times the overlying sand would cave down and engulf the curious 

 but incautious archeologist who after a time would be rescued by 

 his assistants. 



Preliminary post holing over the knoll soon revealed the character 

 of the site, and in consec[uence it was divided into two sections, the 

 village and the burial. Parallel and adjacent trenches were staked 

 out and the lines run as far as post holing and surface indications 

 revealed a disturbance or modification of the soil by its former 

 occupation. 



Surface evidence of an occupation 



The surface evidence of an occupation in that portion of the 

 site afterward found to be the village section was pronounced. The 

 ground was strewn with heat cracked stones, fragments of shale 

 anvils, broken flint nodules, with here and there a fragment of. 

 weathered pottery hidden amongst the roots of the tall grass. The 

 luxurious growth of grass in patches when surrounded by a scantier 

 growth points out a spot of soil enriched by some abnormal 

 agency. The rank thick grass and clover here in the village site 

 was conspicuous and pointed out the presence of occupied soil or 

 " Indian dirt " as archeologists sometimes term it. Except on the 

 western slope, the burial section of the site revealed no trace of its 

 character. On this hillside where the elements had washed down 

 the loose sand some of the graves were left so near the surface 

 that the skeletons had been thrown up by the plow. The broken 

 and crumbling bones, however, would hardly be recognized by the 

 ordinary observer as human remains. Other than the bits of human 

 bone on the surface there was no external indication where graves 

 were located, unless it were conjectured that if graves were to be 

 found at all they would be in the soil most easily excavated. 



Village section 



The village section occupied the level top of the knoll bordering 

 the lake bank and ran back south on the west side about 200 feet 



