BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 339 



supply of rough blocks which would be heavy to carry and which 

 might prove useless because of hidden flaws. The natural thing 

 to do was to break from the blocks flakes large enough for any 

 implement, and, further, to work these into a form from which 

 they could later make any needed implement. That this was 

 done is made evident by the frequent occurrence in the refuse 

 heaps of heavy, unworked flakes, and of roughly worked ovals. 

 These flakes and oval "blanks" are too rough and heavy for use, 

 but from them any implement could have been made. "Caches" 

 of such oval "blanks" are sometimes found near village sites. 

 These were brought from the quarry and buried in the earth 

 against some future need. 



Excepting at the quarry at Fort Erie, there is no place 

 along the Niagara Frontier which can properly be called a fac- 

 tory; that is a place where chert points or any other articles 

 were made for sale. The most frequent signs of Indian occu- 

 pancy are the flakes or chips of chert which were dropped on the 

 ground where some Indian made a chert implement. As might 

 be expected these are most abundant on the village sites, and 

 they constitute a large proportion of the material found in refuse 

 heaps. These chips are abundant on every camp site also. Yet 

 there is no place in which they occur so abundantly as to war- 

 rant one in saying that there was a factory. The chips in a 

 refuse heap were thrown there by some one of the inhabitants 

 of the house to which that refuse heap belonged, and were the 

 waste from tool making in the house. The chips on the camp 

 sites were dropped there by some one of a wandering party who 

 needed a new point, and made it on the spot. 



The Artifacts Found in the Region. 



The tools, implements, weapons, utensils and ornaments 

 which were made and used by the Indians of the Niagara Fron- 

 tier are remarkable for their abundance, their variety and their 

 excellence. Their abundance is due partly to the large popula- 

 tion of the region, partly, also, to the existence of ash beds and 

 refuse heaps and graves, in which they have been preserved. 

 Mainly because of these agencies, articles which because of their 

 fragility would ordinarily be quickly decayed or destroyed, are 

 comparatively abundant, and they illustrate the large variety of 



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