366 THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY 



that near the Elma group of sites is a group of defensive earth- 

 works which did not surround villages. They seem to have 

 defended camps. This, when correlated with the equally sig- 

 nificant fact that the most recent of the Elma sites is on a high 

 point formed by the junction of Buffalo Creek and a deep ravine, 

 seems to indicate that when this site was occupied there was need 

 for a strong position which could be easily defended against small 

 parties, which on their part were constrained to defend their own 

 camps. The same thing can be said of the Buffalo group. Site 

 No. 7 was a defended village and the most recent of the group, 

 Site No. 22, East Hamburg, is enclosed on three sides by deep 

 ravines, and on it occurs an abundance of imported stones of a 

 size suitable for missiles. 



The Elma and Buffalo groups of sites are believed, then, to 

 have been inhabited by Wenrohronons because they were occupied 

 by a numerous, sedentary Iroquoian people who lived east of the 

 Neutrals and approximately a day's journey west of the Senecas 

 and the most recent sites show a state of war. They thus answer 

 to the Jesuits' description of the Wenroes. 



Before the advent of the Iroquois people, Senecas, Tuscaroras, 

 Neuters, Eries and Wenroes, the Niagara Frontier was the hunting 

 ground and perhaps the permanent home of a tribe of wandering 

 people or perhaps of several such tribes . These people established 

 no villages but followed the water-courses from place to place in 

 pursuit of game or in search of wild frnits. At certain well-known 

 stopping places they established camps and some of these they 

 visited regularly, perhaps, year after year. The camp- sites which 

 are scattered over the country are these stopping places. 



The identity of these wanderers can never be ascertained. 

 They were not of Iroquoian stock. The remains upon their 

 camp-sites are so different from those on the Iroquoian sites that 

 this can be safely said. They were probably not all of the same 

 nation. A chalcedony drill found on Site No. 69, Hamburg, and 

 a large chalcedony flake found on Smoke's Creek seem to have 

 come from the west. From the west or south, also, came the 

 striped slate gorgets sometimes found on the camp sites. It is 

 quite possible that some of these camps were established by 

 Missisaugas. 



When the camp-sites were occupied can never be known. 

 Some may have been occupied in the eighteenth century. Many 

 doubtless antedate the Iroquoian occupation. 



