SKINNER, INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 7 



and is especially valuable for the number and variety of primitive manu- 

 factures shown. One of the most interesting of the sections demonstrates, 

 by means of a series of specimens, the primitive methods of cutting bone and 

 antler employed by these Indians. Bone was cut by notching or grooving 

 it with a stone knife or flake and then breaking it at the groove. Antler 

 was worked in the same way, but it is very probable that the Indians boiled 

 antler in order to make it more pliable and easily cut. 



In the western side of this case (3B) there is a series of specimens 

 collected from an ancient Indian village situated on the site of the Parade 

 Ground at Van Cortlandt Park. In the adjacent section some specimens 

 from Long Island in general are shown. 



The upright case (4A) at the end contains an exhibit from the Iroquois 

 Indians of New York State, and the small wall case (6) on the side shows 

 a section of a shell heap with a map showing the location of most of the 



"P,t "fit AsK-bei 



urf ace. 5otl 



he Ms oml 



blacKeirlh. 



FIG. 3. DIAGRAM OF A TYPICAL SHELL DEPOSIT. 



Indian villages of Greater Xew York and vicinity, as well as photographs 

 and labels describing the opening and excavation of the sites. Specimens 

 typical of those found in the shell heaps are also exhibited. 



Of all the traces left by the aborigines along the New York seacoast, 

 the most abundant and familiar are the shell heaps — the beds of refuse 

 marking the sites of ancient villages, camps and isolated wigwams. Wher- 

 ever the fresh water joins the salt and especially where open water for fishing, 

 a creek with its clam beds and a spring for drinking come together in happy 

 combination, there is generally to be found some such evidence of Indian 

 occupation, unless, as is often the case, settlement and improvement have 

 buried deep the shells or carted them away. 



The typical "shell heap" is not a heap at all, for leaf mold, the wash 

 from neighboring high ground and often cultivation have made it level with 

 its surroundings (Fig. 3). Very often, unless the land be plowed, no shells 

 whatever show on the surface, and the only way of finding out the conditions 



