On a Locality of Flint Implements in Wyoming County, N. Y. 



By Professor I. P. Bishop, 

 Of the State Normal and Training School, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Professor James Hall, State Geologist : 



Sir. — In conformity with your request, I send herewith an account 

 of the circumstances under which the flint implements recently pre- 

 sented by me to the Museum of Natural History, were found. 



The land on both sides of Silver Lake, Wyoming county, N. T., affords 

 many interesting relics of the Indians who once resided there ; flint 

 arrow-heads, stone axes and mortars are frequently found, and less 

 frequently pipes, flint knives and rude pottery. About 1880, while 

 residing near Silver Lake, I began a careful examination of the fields 

 on the west side and about the outlet, with the purpose of ascertain- 

 ing the probable sites of old Indian settlements and of collecting 

 specimens of Indian handiwork. This search I prosecuted in my 

 leisure moments until 1885. Whenever a field was plowed, I looked 

 it over carefully, going back and forth in such a manner that no part 

 should escape observation. 



In the latter part of October, 1884, while examining in this way a 

 recently sown wheat field on the farm of Mr. George Needham, just 

 east of the point where the outlet leaves the lake, I found two or three 

 imperfectly worked flints, lying together and partially imbedded in the 

 ground. A few minutes digging with a stick increased the number 

 to thirteen. Believing that others were buried deeper, I obtained 

 permission from the owner to investigate further, and on November 

 eleventh, made an excavation at the spot where the others were found. 

 Less than a foot below the surface, imbedded in a very black soil, 

 was a pile of flints numbering 280, and filling, when taken out, a 

 measure of about ten or twelve quarts. The plow had carried some of 

 them a few feet away, but the greater part were within a space of 

 2x4 feet; two boys afterwards dug over the ground again and found 

 five more, which, with those first discovered, made an aggregate of 298. 



These flints, I was at first disposed to regard as of very ancient 

 make, as they were much ruder in shape and finish than those found 

 about the same field. But after having examined this large 



