l6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



"bracelets for themselves. In the perfect state in which they found 

 it, it required nothing but to beat it into shape." Henry, p. 187 



Mr P. M. Van Epps described in the American Antiquarian for 

 1894 a cemetery north of Schenectady, in which a copper ax was 

 found. In another grave afterward, 135 copper beads were obtained. 

 In a letter to the writer describing these, he said: 



The copper beads were quite peculiar, being quite unlike the 

 common tubular beads of the western states. These were made by 

 rolling together quite thick chunks or welts of the native copper, 

 till the finished bead was, in some cases, as large as a small hickory 

 nut. The bar or strip of copper used was, for some of the beads, 

 so thick that two or three turns made a large bead. Mr Clute, the 

 finder of the beads, told me that he gave two of the larger ones to 

 friends, mechanics in the Schenectady Locomotive Works, who 

 desired to pound them into finger rings, but found, to their surprise, 

 that not a file in the works would cut them, and that they had to 

 "be annealed before they could be worked out as they wished. In 

 short, that they were tempered or hardened. I can not vouch for 

 this. At any rate, the beads are a unique lot, and it is very unfortu- 

 nate that the finder allowed them to be separated. 



These were found about 1890. The writer, himself, has seen a 



r^it of native copper from Brewerton which rang like steel. Fig. 



236 and 237 represent two of these beads still belonging to Mr 



Clute. Fig. 238 is a smaller one now owned by Mr Van Epps. 



They are very well worked, and the junction outside is not at first 



apparent. The surface is neatly rounded, and the ends flattened. 



These are some of the smaller beads. The larger ones could not be 



obtained. 



Recent beads 



The earlier brass beads show European contact preceding coloni- 

 zation. Fig. 245 is a fine cylindric bead of this material, well made 

 and over 3 inches long. This came from the early fort on Garoga 

 creek in Ephratah, and was found by Mr S. L. Frey. Fig. 256 is 

 another from the same fort, which is less than half as long. Out of 

 hundreds of relics found there these are all that came from the white 

 man's hands. It is reasonable to suppose that the Mohawks who 

 used these, had them before they left Canada. This is in the Rich- 

 nnond collection. Fig. 234 shows another in the same collection 



