PERCH LAKE AND OTHER NEW YORK MOUNDS 



13 



to the shore through it in the least easy. I examined the undis- 

 turbed land at the top of these cliffs for a long distance, without 

 rinding a trace of aboriginal life. Every favorable indication was 

 carefully examined, but nothing appeared. There may have been 

 obliterated dwellings in the cultivated land farther back, but this is 

 not probable. The swamp was an undesirable barrier to the lake. 



Farther north, on the west side of Hyde creek, the case was 

 different. That stream came fairly near the rocky uplands, afford- 

 ing an easy passage to the lake. Accordingly a few mounds were 

 reported there, though none seem to remain. Certainly they were 

 few. I was told of two mounds leveled by my informant on the 

 A. J. Dillenbeck farm in 1901. These were 5 rods west of the 

 swamp and 30 rods from the lake. In plowing there he found a 

 broken flint knife, a fragment of pottery and a pottery rim, all of 

 which he gave me. From the character of the rim I think there is 

 an error of location. These were all the mounds of which I could 

 learn on that side. 



Mr S. Getman said that he found a celt near two mounds he plowed 

 up on the south part of his farm, at an early day, on the higher ter- 

 race east of the creek. I found no existing mounds as far north as 

 this. A celt and arrowheads were reported from two mounds 

 destroyed in 1900, on the upper terrace of the Timmerman farm. 

 These had disappeared. The dual arrangement may be observed in 

 all these mounds. It is probable that many mounds have long dis- 

 appeared from this higher cultivated land. Those remaining are on 

 the stony lower terraces. Commencing south of the Getman farm 

 they extend along the shore to a stream called Ruff's creek by some. 

 South of this swampy lands again appear by the lake. This eastern 

 shore is mostly high and rocky, rising thence in terraces, and the 

 mounds appear here and there all the way. Some mounds may have 

 escaped my attention in the undergrowth on the Van de Walker 

 farms. 



A medium sized mound was opened on the farm next south 

 of S. Getman's. Plate 4 shows this, on the second terrace east of 

 Hyde creek and not far from it. It is 30 feet across and 2 feet high, 

 with a broad central depression. A rectangular fireplace in the 



