13 
rows of kernels, some of the very slender cobs having had as many as ten 
rows. The cobs would correspond in size with the purple, calico, and short- 
eared calico varieties still grown by the New York Iroquois. 1 
The charred condition of the corn is due to the Iroquois custom of 
partly charring it for domestic use; the Seneca still kept up the practice 
in Morgan’s time (II, page 30). 
Since there were no storage pits in the ground as at some other Iroquoian 
sites in Ontario, the corn was probably stored in the lofts of houses, as 
at Hochelaga. 2 
Many carbonized beans were found, principally in the layer of fine 
carbonized matter at the bottom of several of the refuse deposits and occa- 
sionally also among the small deposits of corn kernels. They are mostly 
small and kidney shaped, but none is of the “ cranberry ” type. 3 The 
smallest is about Jo inch long anc * i inch wide, and the largest % inch 
long and ^ inch wfde. Most of them are split in half lengthwise. 
Squash seeds, which, unlike the corn and beans, were not carbonized, 
were found in the muck surrounding the spring and in two of the refuse 
deposits. They are probably those of Cucurbita polymorpha, and closely 
resemble in size and shape those of the variable marrow-like form,, some- 
times striped, regarded as aboriginal and, according to Waugh, still cul- 
tivated by a few old Iroquois at Oneidatown and Grand River reservations, 
Ontario, and Tonawanda, New York, in 1912. 
There were only a few sunflower seeds, all carbonized. According to 
Parker (2:102), sunflower oil was a favourite food-oil of the Iroquois, 
but it was probably mostly used on the hair (Carr, page 172, and Cham- 
plain, III, page 119). 4 
Animal Foods 
Remains of animals used for food include bones of mammals, birds, 
reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and shells of land and freshwater mollusks. 
Mammal bones were the most abundant. Many of the skulls of small 
mammals have the brain case broken. The following list gives the names of 
the mammals in order of abundance: Virginia deer, beaver, dog, black bear, 
raccoon, 5 pine marten, muskrat, 6 porcupine, 7 otter, 8 fisher, mink, wood- 
chuck, varying hare, red squirrel, lynx, 9 moose, wapiti, wolf, 10 skunk, 11 wol- 
verine, red fox, grey fox ( Urocyon sp.), chipmunk, black or grey squirrel, 12 * * 1 
l See Parker, 2, Plate 9, figs 4-8,8- „ 
*"There are lofts in the upper part of their houses, where they store their corn (Cartier, pp. 156-157), 
•These beans were probably of the kind described by Cartier (p. 183) as "of various colors and unlike our own , 
grown by the Iroquois of the lower St, Lawrence. _ ... a ». 
Wan Curler speaks of loaves of com meal "baked with nuts and dry blueberries and the grains of the sunflower 
(Wilson p Q1 ) 
‘The flesh of this animal was eaten by the Mohawk of the seventeenth century (De Vries, p. 105). 
•Muskrat flesh was evidently relished as among modem epicures; we have Cartier’s testimony to this effect 
(p. 147), 
7 "The Indians eat it with great relish; its flesh tastes like pork” (Loskiel, p. 84). 
■Loskiel (p. 84) says "Its flesh is unwholesome and never eaten but in a famine.” 
•According to De Vries the Mohawk ate the flesh of wildcats (p. 94). 
io a pair of lower jaws and a portion of a skull are too large to be those of a dog and may be wolf. Some of the 
large leg bones, referred to elsewhere as possibly those of a large variety of dog, may also be those of the wolf. 
'■According to Waugh (p 135) skunk flesh is eaten by the modern Iroquois, Kalm (I, 217) says: "When the 
Indians kill such a pole cat, they always eat its flesh.” Loskiel (p. 86) says "The flesh of this animal is wholesome 
and well-flavored " , . , . , 
1S According to Loskiel (p. 86) the flesh of the black squirrel is "eaten by the Indians in case of sickness, but not 
as common food,” 
23466—2 
