HORN AND BONE IMPLEMENTS 25& 



a by far the larger part are distinct in appearance. Refer- 

 ences will be made to some for comparison. In North America a 

 division of districts might be made, but there is much uniformity of 

 type in common articles. A bone awl from a cliff dweller's home 

 may be in no way distinguishable from one made in New York. 

 Village siies are the best places for determining the age and rela- 

 tions of bone articles. At fishing places, frequented by many visit- 

 ors of different periods and families, the numerous and fine remains 

 of this kind rarely permit any orderly sequence to be assigned them. 

 It will be noticed that a large proportion of the bone articles here 

 figured are from the central part of New York, the home of the 

 Iroquois One reason for this is that the writer's own work has 

 been mainly there, but a more important one is that this region is 

 nowhere equaled in articles of this kind. Visits were made to some 

 other places, and correspondence was had with good antiquarians, 

 to see what additional matter could be secured. Moderate results 

 were obtained, and some of interest, but all pointed to the fact that 

 the early and late Iroquois, with their kindred, were the workers in 

 bone par excellence. As these had some early hold on Lake Cham- 

 plain, though no forts or towns, it was to be expected that some- 

 thing would be found there. The small and briefly occupied sites 

 did not, however, produce sufficient preservative material for large 

 results. A letter from Dr D. S. Kellogg of Plattsburg states the 

 case there : 



I don't know that I can add much to my hony 'matter. The 

 most I have found was in fire heaps ; among charcoal, ashes, fire 

 stones, flint implements, celts and fragments of pottery. There are 

 many awls or needles, and some very fine fragments of notched 

 harpoons. The bones and teeth of different animals are quite 

 numerous, and mostly broken. Deer horns are often found, and 

 some of the tines louk as if they had been used as punches. 



A long resident population, large villages, and ]3erhaps unusual 

 skiil, made the Iroquois home territory a treasure house of the 

 articles now to be considered. They are abundant, fine, and in 

 general remarkably well preserved. 



Besides those authors more explicitly quoted in the following 

 pages, reference may be made to some writers in the way of general 

 distribution. Dr Henry Schliemann's Jlios has bone needles with 



