34 
and four and a half inches in depth” (page 273. See his Figure 2). 
There was a large boulder of gneissoid rock, about 3 feet long and 2 
wide, on the north side of the road, nearly opposite the Kelso- White line 
fence, with several shallow depressions on the upper surface, in which 
corn may have been ground. 
Most of the mortars are small and could have been easily carried on 
hunting trips, which seems to have been the practice of the Mohawks, 
of whom De Vries wrote: “When they travel they take a flat stone and 
press it with another stone placed upon the first” (page 107). Megalo- 
pensis also speaks of this method of grinding corn. “ Their bread,” he 
says (page 156), “is Indian corn beaten to pieces between two stones.” 
It is probable that the people here also used wooden mortars as at 
Hochelaga 1 and among the Hurons (Champlain, Figure H), which were 
similar to those used by the modern Iroquois (Waugh, page 58 and Plate 
XVIII). 
MULLERS 
Forty mullers made of cobbles of granite and other rocks were found. 
More than half of them show very little artificial modification beyond 
the flattening of the sides and peripheral abrasions; in some cases only 
one side is flattened. Some of them appear to have been worn to their 
present shape by continual use. Nine specimens, in addition to the flat- 
tening, are pitted on one side and eleven are pitted on both sides. The 
one in Plate I, figure 35, with both of the longer edges battered until 
it is of an oblong shape, has the flat sides smoothed and polished from 
use. The flattened stone object in figure 34, in the same plate, may also 
have been used as a muller. 
These mullers were probably used as the upper millstones to crush 
corn, seeds, and nuts in some of the shallow mortars. The pits in some 
of them may have been intended to afford a finger hold while in use, 
or may be the result of cracking the hard shells of nuts. 
COOKING 
One of the first requirements, before it was possible to cook, was fire, 
and several methods of producing it may have been used. Waugh (page 
50) mentions the following methods in use among the modern Iroquois: 
with flint and pyrites; with either fire, pump, or bow drills; with a fire 
plow; and with a fire saw. He thinks, however, that “ The fact of such a 
variety of methods being found in use contemporaneously evidently denotes 
accultural influences.” 
Some of the chert chips may have been used to strike fire from iron 
pyrites, of which several nodules were found. Van Curler says the Mohawk 
used flint in the fire-making (Wilson, page 96) . 
It is possible that such a simple device as a fire-drill was also used. 
The Huron Indians are known to have employed this method (See Jesuit 
Relations, VI, page 267, and XXX, page 279; and Sagard, 1:48-49, and 
2:180-181). Megalopensis (page 154) says the Mohawk produced “fire 
by rubbing pieces of wood against one another, and that very quickly.” 
. ’Cartier (p. 157) says: "They have wooden mortars, like those used in France for braving hemp, and in these 
with wooden pestles they pound the com into flour.’ ’ 
