The Ha wkeye 0. an d 0. 11 



NOTED COLLECTIONS— NO. 1. 



BY F. E. STEARNS. 



This month I will begin a series of articles on some of the 

 most noted collections in the United States. It will be well to 

 begin with the mammoth collection owned \>y Mr. Wra, W. 

 Adams, of Mapletown, New "York, of whom yon have all heard 

 more or less. Although Mr. Adams has been a collector hardly 

 live years, lie has succeeded in gathering together a collection of 

 relics which are coveted by all who see them. 



The circumstances under which Mr. Adams became a collec- 

 tor are as follows: On the 28th day of February, 1SS4, he was 

 arranging his books in a new case and found that a partition was 

 unoccupied. So he told his wife that he would go to some 

 woods near town, owned by a man named Iloskins, and see if he 

 could find some Indian relics to fill the unoccupied shell. lie 

 had heard when a boy that this was. the site of an Indian burial 

 ground, and after reaching the woods he proceeded to investigate 

 the graves. The first grave he opened contained a fine Turkey 

 head pipe. Then, he says, "I commenced talking Indian and in- 

 quiring about Indian relics. I soon found where there were 

 more burying places and, whenever I found time, I would go 

 and dig." The first year and a half he found about 7,500 speci- 

 mens, which would be considered quite a collection by some, but 

 which forms but a very small part of the present collection. 

 Since then he has made some wonderful finds, of which we have- 

 only space to mention a few. Aug. 4th, 1S86, he discovered a 

 cache in which was found the following: One silver letter seal 

 with crossed arrows and the letters ' f M. K." body of seal repre- 

 sents dolphin; 8 baldric beads; 5 bird shaped shell ornaments; 

 2 brass bells: massive shell bead; shell ornament, 2^-xl|-x^, bird- 

 shaped; 400 large colored beads; copper coin, 1050, and 19 

 Jesuit rings. The lot is valued at about thirty dollars. Octo- 

 ber 18, 1887, the following lot was found: 935 wampum and bu- 



