IXDf.WS or MAXI/ATTAX I SI. AX I) :,:, 



siliiatcd oil llic wcslcrii ciul of llic lisc hcl wccii '1\()\\\ mikI 2\\\\\ Str<'('ls, 

 oil the cMslcMii cihI of wliicli is llic old NcmhIc Hiiiyiii^ ( Jrouiid. 'I'liis dis- 

 coxciy was iiil(M(\st iiiii; hccausc iiiidci- the iic^io ^lavcs several shell 

 l)()('kels of uiid()ul)i(Ml Indian oii^in canie to li^ht. 'i'he woi'lvFiieii, in 

 jiradin^ 'rentli Avenue, cul inlo tliLs hill to ohtjiin mateiial for fillin<i, 

 iiiul un('o\-er(>d Ihe j^raves and jKX'kots. It schmiis jdmost certain tlial tli(! 

 deposits weic made some time aj>;(); then the wind blew the sand o\'er Ihe 

 deposits to a depth of four or five feet, and negroes later used this place as 

 a burial j;round. In support of this theory is the fact that the pockets 

 were four or five feet under the surface, that the soil above sIiowcmI no 

 signs of having been disturbed, and that this rise is put down on the 

 Government maps of this section as a sand dune.^ During the sununer of 

 1904, Mr. Calver with Messrs. Hall and Bolton uncovered nine or more 

 pockets to the southwest of the graveyard. ^ These pockets all seem to 

 have been of the same period as the others, and all appear to have been 

 on the original ground surface, although those farther up the hill were 

 some four feet under the present surface. In one of these pockets was 

 found the complete skeleton of a dog,^ in another, a turtle shell; two 

 others contained complete snake skeletons; while a fifth held the frag- 

 ments of a small pottery vessel. The pockets were small, being about 

 three feet in diameter and of equal depth, showing no signs of having first 

 been used as fireplaces and then filled up, though charcoal was scattered 

 among the shells. Almost all the relics from Van Cortlandt Park were 

 found by Mr. James in pockets similar to these. 



During Indian troubles in 1675, the Wickquaskeek at Ann's Hook, 

 now Pelham Neck, were told ''to remove within a fortnight to their 

 usual winter quarters within Hellgate upon this Island." River says, 

 ''This winter retreat was either the w^oodlands between Harlem Plains 

 and Kingsbridge, at that date still claimed by these Indians as hunting 

 grounds, or Rechawanes and adjoining lands on the Bay of Hellgate, as 

 the words 'within Hellgate' would strictly mean, and which, by the 

 immense shellbeds found there formerly, is proved to have been a favorite 

 Indian resort."^ A little later the Indians asked to be allowed to return 

 to their maize lands on Manhattan Island and the Governor said that 

 they, "if they desire it, be admitted with their wives and children, to 

 plant upon this Island, but nowhere else, if they remove; and that it be 

 upon the north point of the Island near Spuyten Duyvel. ' '^ 



iNew York Geologic Folio. 



2New York Tribune, Oct. 30, 1904, and New York Sun, Dec. 14; 1904. 



3 All that could be saved of this skeleton has been presented to the Museum by Mr. Edward Haga- 

 man Hall. 



^History of Harlem, p. 366. 

 "History of Harlem, p. 369. 



