530 NEW \URK STATK MUSEUM 



On lots 45 and 46 in Gerr\' are some remarkably large ash heaps, 

 hearths and cinder beds. One was fully examined by the writer, 

 W. W. Henderson, John T. Phelps and others in ]\Iay 1887. It is on 

 the eastern side of a small rivulet of cold water supplied by springs, 

 which was once filled with trout. The stream runs from lot 46 to 

 lot 45. This ash heap is 60 feet south of the center of the road run- 

 ning between these lots. Its north and south diameter is 44 feet ; 

 its west has been worn away. Its present diameter is 35 feet east 

 and west. Its original diameter was probably 51 feet. It is com- 

 posed of a dark siliceous earth thickly mixed with fragments of 

 granite boulders, sometimes almost forming a solid mass of broken 

 stone. Most of these stones were covered with a thick lampblack. 

 They would sometimes crumble when crushed in the hand, showing 

 the efifect of fire. Mingled with these stones was the natural soil 

 which is here very sandy and black. There were no ashes, but only 

 sooty stones and sand. The soil in the vicinity of the cinder bed was 

 yellow, sandy loam upon which thickly grew large, white pine trees. 

 The cinder bed was grassed over and was of a darker material than 

 the surrounding land. Its form was rounded and higher than the 

 land around it. The bed was from i to 2 feet deep. Upon it stood a 

 very large white pine stump much decayed, of a tree probably 5 feet 

 in diameter, 3 feet above the ground. That this tree commenced its 

 growth after the cinder bed was formed is evident. The deepest part 

 of the bed was under its roots and the best specimens of burned 

 stones were found beneath it. About 30 rods above this on the 

 streamlet was a smaller but similar hearth ; 25 rods farther up the 

 rivulet was another cinder bed about i rod in diameter. ]\Iany 

 arrows have been found on and in the vicinity of these ash heaps. 



There was formerly an earthwork partly on the lands formerly 

 owned by the late H. D. Gates and parti}' on the lands of Hiram 

 Sears on lots 35 and 43. The northern boundary was about 40 rods 

 south of the north line of these lots. In May 1878 no part of it was 

 visible. It is said to have been oval and to have encompassed 7 acres. 

 It included four springs within its circuit. \M'ien first seen the 

 embankment was said to have been in })laccs 4 or 5 feel higii with 

 pines and large oak trees upon it. An ornamental Indian pestle with 

 a carved head upon the end and other Indian implements have been 

 found here. 



In the village of Gerry at difl^erent times ancient skeletons have 

 been exhumed i)articularly near the house and upon the lot of Simon 

 Steadman. William Henderson and myself witnessed the disinter- 

 ment of one of these in 1878. 1'hc IkxIv was apparently buried in 



