Dall and Prof. Holmes." Various forms of beads entirely of copper, or of some substance, usually a section of reed, coated with copper, were found throughout the mound. A sheet of copper measuring 2.4 by 1.9 inches was found five feet below the surface; it was "of irregular thickness, varying from .16 of an inch to almost a cutting edge, and revealing an interesting design made, we believe, through pressure, as striae were plainly visible on the indented surface (Fig. 14). "Three feet below the summit plateau were two objects of sheet copper which apparently had been attached to wood, particles being still adherent. One, 1.5 inches square, had in the center a hollow boss from which ran beaded lines to the four corners (Fig. 15). "The custom of placing human teeth, unaccompanied by other remains, with objects of copper was very noticeable at Mt. Royal, where it was of frequent occurrence. "Twelve feet from the center of the mound, five feet from the surface, was an object of great interest, consisting of a sheet of copper 10.6 inches square, centrally decorated with seven depressed concentric circles and having a figure in each corner, the conventional aboriginal bird's head. "Beneath the upper plate of copper was a layer of reeds laid side by side and bound together by closely woven vegetable fibre. On one side, however, the reeds were replaced by twisted vegetable fibre of equal length and diameter. Behind this layer was a backing of bark about .25 of an inch in thickness. Next came another copper plate bent over on itself, projecting beyond the other layers on one side. It was ornamented with corrugations running in different directions. Behind the copper were fragments of wood one inch in thickness, probably remnants of a plank serving as a final backing to the various layers. An interesting fact noted in connection with the upper plate was that a broken portion had been repaired by the aid of rude copper rivets. "This object, worn as a breast plate, might seem sufficient to stop an arrow, and probably is of the nature of the copper chest pieces seen by the huguenot Laudonniére, and figured by Le Moyne. "In addition, covered with a thin coating of sheet copper, were portions of the upper and of the lower jaw of a small gray fox. In the upper portion the thin metallic coating had been turned in to cover the interior of the orbit. "Teeth of the deer, treated in a similar manner with sheet copper have been found in an Illinois mound. 1 1 * * "The discovery of copper in considerable quantity is new to the records of mound investigation in Florida. The source of supply of this southern copper has not been definitely shown." In the western mounds, along with the copper of so frequent occurrence are many objects made from shells native to the southern coast. These were obtained by trade, and it is natural that copper would have been used as a medium of exchange. 2 "So great a mass of sand is piled up at Mt. Royal that a total demolition of the mound was not attempted, and we are, therefore, debarred from forming final conclusions. Among the hundreds of objects taken from the great mound, there was not one bead of glass nor implement of iron, nor was any object met with obviously of European manufacture, or of necessity connecting the mound with a period subsequent to the arrival of the Whites." SAND MOUND IN LAKE COUNTY. In Lake County, not far from the mouth of Hitchen's Creek, was "found an unstratified mound of pure white sand containing occasional pockets of red sand (the coloring matter being due to an admixture of powdered hematite, sometimes occurring in such amount as to produce a brick-red hue) surrounding deposits of implements, pottery, etc. Its shape was a symmetrical truncated cone. Its height was 4 feet 4 inches, its circumference 180 feet." The "burials were bunched; * * in all, 30 crania were met with. * * At times bundles of long bones were found without the skull, while in other portions of the mound fragments of isolated crania were encountered. At times, great bunches of long bones were found with two or three crania in association. * * Exactly at the center of the mound, in actual contact, were seven crania surmounted by a mass of long bones lying at all angles and in all planes." 1 Likewise those of a bear in a mound at the mouth of Peter's Creek, 19 miles above Pittsburg.-G. F. 2 Mr. Wm. Cameron, a man of education and shrewd Scotch sense, who spent more than sixty years among the Indians of the northern border, stated some years since that in his earliest dealings with the Chippewas, he was told by the older men their fathers [ancestors] used to carry pieces of copper to the coast of Virginia to trade for shells. They did not dig for the metal but with their hatchets cut pieces from the surface nuggets or boulders still quite common in some parts about Lake Superior. If it was carried thus far, it could easily have made its way to Florida.-G. F. Among many other relics of copper, shell, and stone, was “a beautiful hoe-shaped implement of polished trap rock, 7.3 inches in length, with a maximum breadth of 5.2 inches (Fig. 20)." This type, though found in most of the southern states, "is hitherto unreported from Florida." The result of analysis of specimens of copper from this tumulus "is virtually the same as that of copper from Mt. Royal." Considerable pottery was also found, most of it showing marked peculiarities; "sherds wrought to resemble rude arrow-heads were notably absent in this mound, as we have noticed to be the case where the makers of the mounds seem to have been well provided with objects of value for inhumation." While this mound resembled Mt. Royal in many details of construction and contents, "the total absence of polished hatchets and the curious effigies and forms of pottery" made a well defined line of demarcation between the two. MOUND AT BLUFFTON. This, after much cultivation, measured at the time 14 feet in height, with a circumference of 305 feet. Trees, three feet in diameter, were growing on it. Some clay entered into the construction, making excavation difficult. A deposit of shells on which the mound was built, extended beyond it on every side. No human bones were found except those of intrusive burials, very few relics, and no pottery; but a considerable portion of the mound was not excavated. The shell deposit of Bluffton is the largest in area of any on the river, covering in all about 35 acres, attaining at one point a thickness of 25 feet." (To be continued in April Number.) AN INDIAN MOUND ON CANANDAIGUA LAKE. A. L. BENEDICT, A.M., M.D., BUFFALO. SOME reference to the geology of Canandaigua Lake will enable us better to understand the facilities for and the limitations to human habitation, when man had no thought of altering the lay of the land but sought until he found a place suited by nature to his needs. Water, especially if it contained fish and was navigable, a hill-side to protect from wind, yet not so shaped as to screen an approaching enemy from view, clay for pottery and flint for weapons -these were the natural advantages which rendered land of value to the Indian as a more or less permanent abiding place. Clay was most easily obtained from a distance; in fact, Indians rather avoided a clay soil as being damp and disagreeable, and were content to dig what little they needed for their scanty stock of utensils from some accidental outcropping and were not particular as to its quality. Flint (more properly chert) was not to be found for many miles around except in useless nodules. In fact, I have been informed that within the last century, the Indians from Keuka and Canandaigua Lakes made trips to the present site of Buffalo for the purpose of utilizing the excellent chert of the corniferous limestone which is so abundant and so superficial as to have given the name Black Rock to one of the villages which have become included in the city of Buffalo. Thus, to the Indian, the choice of habitation on the banks of Canandaigua Lake was largely a question as to the contour of the hills which everywhere surround the water. They must not be too steep or the use of boats would be interfered with, there must be a sufficiently large flat for the erection of wigwams, the shore must be visible for some distance. In short, a projecting, low-lying point, not too much exposed, was the desideratum. How important a consideration this was to the Indians, may be illustrated by the following fact. Beginning with the first sandy level above the village of Ft. Erie, Canada, at the outlet of Lake Erie and extending two or three miles beyond Port Colborne (a distance of about twenty-five miles following the water line), the beach widens out in nine points, being elsewhere narrow and separated by sand dunes from swampy land. At every one of these nine places are found abundant evidences of Indian occupancy, which are lacking on the long stretches of intervening beach. The conditions in the vicinity of Canandaigua Lake are not favorable to the formation of beaches. Although the Hamilton shale, out of which this and neighboring lakes were scooped by glacial action, is interrupted by harder strata, none of these are firm or thick enough to make a floor above which wind and water could wear away softer strata and leave a considerable terrace. The lake being only a mile or less in width, and protected by hills two or three hundred feet in height, wave action is reduced to a minimum. Beaches, in the popular sense of the word, are impossible for the reason that the shale, when worn away, melts back into the mud out of which it was formed. At intervals of several miles, low-lying points have been produced by the gradual wearing away and deposition in the lake of the hill-sides by the little brooks which drain the surface water. It is even possible to calculate that the volume of earth and stone in each point approximates the size of the valley and gorge of the corresponding brook. Not all of these points were used by the Indians as village sites. One is liable to inundation; another, at present used as a summer camp, does not command a view of more than a short stretch of shore in either direction, and it is too readily accessible from the rear. Seneca Point is embraced by steep hills, whose descent, even with the present improvements, is slow and tedious, while the extremity of the point projects well into the lake. It is not surprising then that abundant remains of the Indians are found here. About the outlet of the lake, in the lower portion of the village of Canandaigua, is a large flat from which a good view of the lake and surrounding country may be had. Most of it, however, is marshy and exposed to the winds, so that we are not disappointed in finding no evidences of Indian occupancy. This end of the lake curves rather abruptly into the hill-sides of the east and west banks and at each "corner" where the land becomes high enough to be dry and whence a good view is had, Indian encampments were located. The arrow-heads found at these places are small, few over three centimeters in length. At the northwestern encampment a skinningstone was found by Mr. T. B. Dickson, made from limestone, which had been eroded by wind and rain so that the harder fossils were in relief. A At the first point on the eastern shore of the lake, four miles from the outlet was situated, within historic times, an Indian cornfield. Walking slowly through this field, I found a small arrowhead, a net-sinker and two roughly pecked hammer-stones. thousand feet from the water's edge and a hundred above it, is an Indian mound, only a few feet from the gully of the little brook which has washed down from the hill-side the rock and earth of the corn-field. In July, 1893, I visited this mound in company with Prof. W. H. Sherzer, of Ypsilanti; Prof. Albert L. Arey and Col. S. B. Moulthrop, of Rochester, and a number of students of the Natural Science Camp. On the first inspection, it was impossible to say whether the mound was artificial or not, as it rounded off the top of a natural knoll. According to the recollection of the "oldest inhabitant," the mound was originally about three feet higher than its present level. This statement corresponds with my experience that the Indians of Western New York buried their dead about four feet below the surface. (In the present instance the bones were found about a foot below the ground). In uncultivated places, the level is very little changed in the last few centuries; even in plowed fields the sub-soil remains unchanged, except on hill-sides where the tendency is to fill up the depression at the expense of the elevation, and thus, gradually, to make the descent less steep. As a general rule, Indian graves are situated on little knolls, or near the brow of a hill, and it requires about fifty years' steady cultivation to carry away earth enough so that the plow-share can reach the skeleton and tear out some of the bones. This has been the history of a number of interesting finds of Indian remains which have come to my knowledge. Exactly, the same thing happened in the present instance, some two weeks before our visit, when Mr. Gage, the owner of the farm, exhumed the chest and arm bones and skull of a skeleton. The other bones could not be found. His plow had also hooked out of the ground the cranium of another skull. We found that a pit had already been dug about two feet deep and seven in diameter. On the east and west sides of this, charcoal was seen in a horizontal layer about an inch thick and a foot beneath the surface. Digging into the east side of the pit disclosed nothing but a continuation of the charcoal for a foot or more. On the west side, however, the trowel soon struck bone and the lower part of the skull and the trunk and limb |