90 [Senate 



representative, but it has done service in the Council House of the 

 Senecas at Tonawanda. To this belongs the Ga-neah, or War Club, 

 which is a light article, fashioned after modern notions, and designed 

 to use in the war dance. This is also from Tonawanda. As to the 

 part of a calumet, it is from the West. The bowl was of a soft red 

 stone called Calimite, and inlaid with lead. It is lost. 



It would be an easy matter to obtain full Iroquois costumes, male 

 and female, together with the implements, weapons and utensils in 

 common use among them. When collected, they would richly repay 

 the cost and trouble. The birch bark canoe, the bow and arrow, 

 tomahawk, belt, turtle-shell rattle, drum, wampum, war club, ball 

 club, snow snake, and all other articles of this description should 

 have a plac^ in the " Historical and Antiquarian Collection" of the 

 State. 



This concludes all that need be said concerning the few specimens 

 which are now placed at the disposal of the Board. The number 

 is large enough to awaken a little curiosity, but too small to be of 

 much importance by themselves. 



While reflecting upon the project of the Regents of the University 

 to found an Indian Cabinet for the State — an enterprise which no 

 State in the Union has ever undertaken — the importance and sea- 

 sonableness of the" measure become more and more apparent. If a 

 vigorous movement is now made to secure a small foundation to 

 build upon, the collection would soon come into notice, and acquire 

 sufficient vitality to secure to it a natural growth. It may not be 

 improper to suggest, with reference to this project, that Doctor 

 Beaureau, of Gallipolis in Ohio, is understood to have an Indian 

 Collection consisting of about 1500 specimens, many of which, 

 however, are duplicates, which can be purchased for $200 or $300. 

 They belong principally to the period of the " Mound Builders," 

 and would therefore furnish a very appropriate commencement to an 

 Indian Collection in our own State, as our own aboriginal remains 

 reach back to that period, or have their commencement in it. With 

 that collection, and such scattering specimens as can be brought to- 

 gether from various parts of our State by private contribution, our 

 State Collection would at once be placed in advance of all others 

 in the country. 



It occurred to the writer, when he received the resolutions of the 

 Regents, to make a brief report on the Trench Enclosures, or Fort 

 Hills in Western New-York; for the purpose of calling their atten- 

 tion to the importance of having them surveyed, before the residue 

 are effaced by the plow. Several drawings or ground plans were 

 accordingly prepared from surveys made personally a few years sinc^j 



