fe 
The Saginaw Valley Collection 11 
exposed by the rivers, while in other places they are covered 
with soil. From such exposures canoes could easily descend to 
villages along the rivers, while to carry the material by trail to 
inland settlements would have been laborious. The evidences 
from the numerous village sites and the burial-places, mounds 
and other remains, indicate that the conditions of life in pre- 
historic times were similar to those which existed when the 
Indians were first met by white men. Fragments of pottery; 
pebbles which have been burned and broken, probably while 
used as supports for the round-bottomed pottery cooking-vessels; 
ashes and charcoal ; the broken bones and shells of animals; 
arrow, knife, spear, scraper and drill points of chert; points 
made of bone for arrows or awls; celts or chisels; hammer-stones; 
grooved axes; ornamental objects, etc.—all are to be seen in 
this case. A number of such objects when found on the sur- 
face of the ground at a particular place, especially if pottery is 
present, constitute the evidence which proves the spot to have 
been a village site. Charcoal and ashes alone are not conclusive 
proof of a village site, since such remains may have been left by 
white people of recent times. 
PARTICULAR SITES. 
North Island Workshops.—At the western limit of Wild 
Fowl Bay is North Island, on the northern side or highest part of 
which chert implements were found in all stages of manufacture, 
from the nodular masses occurring in the substratum of the entire 
island to the finished chipped points for spears, arrows, knives 
and similar objects. Here also were found chips, flakes and 
other discarded fragments of the same material,—the waste from 
the processes of manufacture,—indicating the site of an ancient 
workshop. Chipped implements of other material than chert 
have not been obtained at this locality. 
Heisterman Island Village Site.—The highest portion of 
Heisterman Island is the northeastern side and there the sand 
ridges slope to the marshes known as the Middle Grounds. 
These marshes are frequented by fish, and wild fowl assemble 
here in large numbers to feed on the wild rice. The rice alone, 
which does not border other portions of the island, may have 
