52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



rather more common about Lake Ontario and the neighborhood of 

 Oneida lake than on the two sites just named. Prof. D. F. Thomp- 

 son of Troy obtained one from the Bolton shore of Lake George; 

 and from Lake Champlain, as we might expect, come a few others. 

 A single specimen, the largest, but also the rudest in point of finish 

 yet reported, comes from the Maine lakes. 



Exactly what took place here at the close of the period we 

 have been considering we do not know. But, by means of the 

 alphabet of relics, supplied by the superficial soil, we are able 

 to spell out a. period of great confusion. The country here seems 

 to have been overrun from about every quarter, judging from 

 the pattern and material, foreign to the locality, of relics scat- 

 tered so profusely about our fields. Flint from Ohio and farther 

 west ; copper from Michigan ; grooved axes and soapstone pot- 

 tery from the Atlantic tract; opaque quartz, and even obsidian, 

 from the south — all these meet and dispute for the notice of the 

 archeologist on Queensbury ground. At Assembly point, on 

 Lake George, is a site yielding beaten copper spear and arrow- 

 heads. In Mr Auringer's explorations, he found a large grooved 

 and polished limestone axe from the often-occupied site in Har- 

 risena ; and in line of association, fragments of large steatite, or 

 soapstone pottery, have been taken from a site southwest of 

 Glens Falls by a local collector. This signifies the presence in 

 the intermediate period of the New England Algonquins. On 

 Harrisena site again are found broad, thin and symmetrical pol- 

 ished limestone celts of quite other origin than the axes. How 

 long the season of confusion lasted, it is impossible to know. 



The territory including Queensbury was in the Algonquins' 

 hands when the Europeans appeared on the scene. Having 

 driven out the Iroquois, they ruled once more undisturbed in 

 their ancient habitat. The Iroquois had gone down by two 

 principal routes to the Mohawk valley, where they had already, 

 prior to the advent of the whites, formed their powerful Con- 

 federacy. One of these routes was by the St Lawrence and 

 Lake Ontario. The other was by the Champlain and Lake 

 George trail to the Hudson river, and thence to the mouths of 

 the Mohawk. It is possible to trace their line of migration from 

 Dunham's bay southeastward to the county line and on to the 

 Hudson at Hudson Falls. The first stage of this overland exodus is 

 well marked by the remains of a considerable town situated on 

 the flats bordering the inlet at Dunham's bay. From this point 



