THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 315 



splinters, awls and needles, daggers or dirks, cylindrical ear orna- 

 ments, implements for the ornamentation of pottery, perforated 

 metatarsals, and perforated teeth. These bone implements are 

 found in all stages of manufacture, from the rude splinter to the 

 ground and polished implement or ornament. 



What was the original height of these works can now only 

 be a matter of conjecture. It is probable, however, that the 

 embankments were from 4 to 5 feet in height and surmounted by 

 palisades. Vegetable mold to the depth of 6 inches has accumulated 

 upon those points most elevated and exposed to atmospheric action; 

 beneath this stratum the relics occur to the depth of 18 inches. The 

 inference, therefore, is that since the work was abandoned time 

 enough has elapsed for the accumulation of 6 inches of vegetable 

 matter by the slow process of growth and deposit on dry land. It 

 was inhabited or used long enough for 12 inches to accumulate. It 

 was probably abandoned when the lake was so nearly filled that it 

 ceased to afford either fish or a permanent supply of water. Since 

 the time when the timber commenced to grow at the surface of the 

 lake, 2 feet of vegetable matter have accumulated. 



PREHISTORIC IROQUOIS SITES IN NORTHERN NEW 



YORK ' 



REPORT OF PEABODY MUSEUM EXPEDITION, I906 



BY M. R. HARRINGTON 



Jefferson county lies in the angle formed between Lake Ontario 

 to the west and the St Lawrence river to the north. Its shore near 

 their junction is deeply cut with bays and the waters are dotted with 

 islands, while farther south the shore is marshy and protected, lake- 

 ward, by a line of barrier beaches. The interior of the country is 

 hilly, the hills being composed of glacial debris resting on a founda- 

 tion of limestone or, in other places, shale. Between the lake shore 

 and the hill region lies a belt of low ground averaging 8 or lO miles 

 wide, whose almost level plain is broken only by a few scattered and 

 usually rocky eminences. This plain is apparently part of the bot- 

 tom of the glacial Lake Iroquois, whose old beaches can readily be 

 followed for miles along the bases of the hills above mentioned. I 

 refer to the traces of this ancient lake especially on account of the 

 fact that even the oldest traces of man thus far found in the region 



1 Published by permission of Prof. Frederic W. Putnam, of the Peabody 

 Museum, Cambridge, Mass. 



