286 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



peoples in New York and the adjacent territory, but an examination 

 of the mounds in the western portion of the State gives us certain 

 facts upon which to base our observations. Even in a larger way 

 the Ohio mounds afford us a basis for comparison. 



New York mounds and the occupied sites contiguous to them, 

 particularly those in Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Livingston 

 counties, indicate that the people of the mound culture used (i) plat- 

 form pipes, (2) grooved axes, (3) celts, (4) adzes, (5) gouges, 

 (6) gorgets, (7) banner stones, (8) boat stones, (9) birdstones, 

 (10) stone tubes of several varieties, (11) native copper implements 

 and ornaments such as chisels, celts, spear and arrow heads, beads, 

 ear ornaments, etc., (12) nimierous flint drills or perforators, 

 (13) shell beads, (14) pearl beads, (15) mica ornaments, (16) bone 

 and antler implements, (17) notched and triangular arrow and spear 

 heads, (18) flints (made in many instances of the Flint Ridge 

 material), (19) made pottery, (20) used discoid stones, (21) con- 

 caved disks, (22) used cylindrical and bell pestles, (23) were a 

 village dwelling people, (24) were cultivators of corn, tobacco 

 and other plants, (25) that they buried in small mounds. 



The evidences of the mound culture are more numerous in extreme 

 western New York than east of the Genesee river. The culture 

 seems to have entered the State along the shores of Lake Erie and 

 up from the Alleghany river. Chautauqua, Erie and Cattaraugus 

 counties thus contain a larger number of mounds than do other 

 portions of the State, though certain other sections, as the Genesee 

 valley, have yielded relics in abundance. 



The regions showing the greatest influence of the mound culture 

 are (i) the south shore of Lake Erie from Westfield to the mouth 

 of Cattaraugus creek, (2) the valley and terraces of the Cattaraugus 

 to Gowanda, (3) the Alleghany valley, (4) the valley of Chautauqua 

 lake and the Chadekoin river, (5) the Connewango valley, (6) the 

 Cassadaga valley, (7) Clear Creek valle^^ (8) the valley of Buffalo 

 creek, (9) the valley of Tonawanda creek eastward to the overland 

 trails to the Genesee (10) eastward along the Alleghany valley from 

 Bradford northward along the tributaries, thence overland to the 

 Genesee valley, (11) the Genesee valley from Portageville to the 

 mouth of the river, (12) Irondequoit creek, (13) Canandaigua Lake 

 valley, (14) the region of the Finger Lakes, to the Seneca river, 

 (15) the valley of the Seneca river, (16) southward and about the 

 southern shores of Oneida lake, (17) scattering relics along the 

 Oswego river, (18) Jefferson county along the shores of Ontario and 

 the_^lower waters 9f the neighboring ereeks, (19) the St Lawrence 



