century; if two hundred and fifty years had passed, it would have been at the rate of 3½ inches per century, or nearly the same as that found by Dr. Horner at Heliopolis, in Egypt. If we assume an average secular increase in our valleys of 3 inches per century, the skeletons at Frewsbury are at least eight hundred years old; they must be at least six hundred years old. I am not without hope that closer and more patient observations will, in course of time give us some reliable data upon or from which we can estimate antiquities now seemingly beyond our reach.
That Chautauqua County was once inhabited by a people more advanced than were the Indians found in the neighborhood by the French and Dutch may, I think, be assumed. That there were human beings here eight hundred or even one thousand years ago seems probable.
I think there are many reasons for the belief that the Indian race, or races, if you will, were the descendants of the Mound-Builders, notwithstanding eminent ethnologists think to the contrary.
I think our county would richly repay a thorough scientific exploration.
ANTIQUITIES OF ONONDAGA AND ADJOINING COUNTIES IN NEW YORK.
By W. M. Beauchamp.
The best accounts of the antiquities of this portion of New York are in Clark's History of Onondaga (1849). This work treats principally of Elbridge and Pompey. General J. A. Clark, of Auburn, has published an identification of Onondaga historical sites, which is also worthy of study. Recently the Skaneateles Democrat gave an account of the finding of a clay pipe there, with human face, 30 inches under ground, in low land; the Auburn papers, of the discovery of human skeletons in Fleming; and the Syracuse papers, of the disinterring of thirty prehistoric skeletons in stone cists in East Syracuse, and of the finding of several skeletons (historic) in Onondaga Valley.
The writer has also made extensive investigations in this section, correcting some errors, and gives, in the following notes, the results of his labors and reading. The localities mentioned will be found on the accompanying chart.
OSWEGO COUNTY.
At Fulton, on the east side of the Oswego River, were the remains of a European earthwork, constructed in the French war, and of a semicircular aboriginal fort. The other portions were removed in making the canal. Here was a noted portage. Bone Hill, now leveled, on the west side of the river, contained large quantities of human bones, and about Lake Neawantha were many arrows.
1. On the line dividing the towns of Volney and Schroeppel was an
