38 [Senate 



With the object of recovering some trace of these vestiges of the past— though 

 but some shadowy outline of its history could be thus presented — I was induced to 

 commence and pursue my humble labors, under the pressure of more than ordinary 

 difficulties. 



I have received encouragement in this survey from the Smithsonian Institution, 

 the American Antiquarian Society, the Am. Ethnological Society, &c. My thanks 

 are also due to Messrs. J E. Weeden, D. J. Pratt, S. L. Ward, S. B. Elsworth, 

 W. W. Henderson, and Nathaniel T. Strong, for information, assistance in surveys, 

 &C.J and for the principal portion of the drawings of the relics, I have been in- 

 debted to Mrs. H. Fairbank, and Miss L. B. Brown. 



CHAPTER II. 



EABTHWORKS, MOUNDS, ETC. 



The first earthwork embraced in this survey, (Plate 1, No. 1,) was perhaps 

 among the latest erected to mark the ancient occupancy of the Aborigines; it also 

 appears to form a connecting link with the era of civilization. It is situated upon 

 the north bank of Cattaraugus creek, about a mile and a half from the village of 

 Irving. The valley here forms a wide and beautiful expanse, the hills rising in 

 shadowy outline upon either side, as if uncertain where to limit their boundaries, 

 and the creek, a shallow but broad stream, glides away to mingle with the waters 

 of Erie — which blend in their distant view with the over-arching skies and become 

 lost in the far horizon. The work has all the appearance of ancient date, and con- 

 sists of an embankment and trench of irregular form, with salient angles inter- 

 secting at each extremity with the banks of the creek. The wall has now become 

 nearly obliterated; it was formerly some three feet in height, and can yet be dis- 

 tinctly traced, measuring about seventeen rods in length; from the course which 

 the creek here assumes, the area embraced is some three-quarters of an acre. The 

 principal interest, however, which attaches to this work, arises from the peculiar 

 remains which have been observed within the inclosure. Numerous crania have 

 here been exhumed, which were lying promiscuously as they may have fallen in 

 battle. These cranial bones have been decided, from their physiological character, 

 to have belonged both to the White and Red races : they were, on the whole, in a 

 better state of preservation than those which elsewhere occur in the ancient works 

 of this section. I received information that in one of the bones of the cervical verte- 

 brae attached to a skeleton — I think from the description in the Axis — a leaden 

 bullet or ball had been discovered to be imbedded. These facts show that an en- 

 gagement had taken place upon this ground, in which representatives of the Euro- 

 pean race and the Aborigines, participated. No record of its history Aere remains, 

 but only the silence of oblivion. 



A group of interesting tumuli (Plate 1, No. 2) are also situated upon the north 

 side of the Cattaraugus creek, within the limits of the Indian reservation. The 

 first of these mounds occurs at the extreme point of a ridge, or rather terrace, which 

 has an abrupt elevation of some fifteen feet, and then gradually ascends to the upper 

 woods beyond, extending in either direction from the work in a semi-circular, pic- 

 turesque form. This mound is of an oblong shape, fifteen feet in altitude, with a 

 diameter near the apex, fifty-four feet in length by thirty-six in breadth. The 

 tumulus is only separated from the crescent-shaped ridge by a narrow gorge, from 



