PERCH LAKE AND OTHER NEW YORK MOUNDS 2^ 



vertebrae or the rump alone should be given to these clogs, the rest 

 must be thrown into the fire; still, for a beaver taken in a snare it 

 is better to throw his bones into a river; it is a strange thing that 

 they gather and pick up these things, and preserve them with so 

 much care that you would say their hunt had been lost had they 

 gone contrary to their superstitions. As I ridiculed them and told 

 them that the beavers did not know what was done with their bones, 

 they replied to me: You do not know how to take beavers, and 

 you wish to talk about them ; before the beaver is entirely dead, 

 they said to me. his soul comes around by the cabin of the one who 

 killed him, and notices carefully what they do with his bones ; that 

 if one gave them to the dogs the other beavers would be warned 

 of it; that is why they would render themselves hard to catch: but 

 they are very glad if they throw their bones into the fire or into a 

 river, the snare especially, which has taken them, is well pleased. 

 I told them that the Iroquois, as is done among us, threw the bones 

 of the beaver to the dogs, and yet they very often took some, and 

 that our French, beyond comparison, were accustomed to take more 

 game than they, and yet our dogs were accustomed to eat the bones. 



The Algonquins, of that day, extended this rule to fish, and it may 

 have had wider applications still. To leave no permanent memorial 

 it was necessary only to care for the bones on the lodge site. Out- 

 side of the circle they would soon perish, and this superstition pre- 

 vented their casting them there. These lodges had no dumping 

 places ; everything was disposed of on the spot. 



In referring these mounds to the Algonquin family another fact 

 is explained. These nations may not have been without earthen- 

 ware, and perhaps most of them were not, in a "limited way, but it 

 was not so common as with the Iroquois and others. They were 

 nomadic, and the lightest vessel possible suited them best. It was 

 particularly necessary to have one not easily broken, and that could 

 be readily replaced on a journey. Toward and north of the St 

 Lawrence the canoe birch abounded, and of this material their cook- 

 ing vessels were formed. Their cooking was not very thorough, 

 and hot stones, dropped into the water, heated it enough for their 

 needs. 



Why arrowheads are not found, nor other stone implements as 

 a rule, is a more difficult question, but capable of various answers. 

 There were careful aborigines, those who lost little, as well as those 

 careless and wasteful. Articles were not so readilv lost, but more 



