the neck. The same may, less distinctly, be seen on the side of the
face and head. I think that this piece of reclining statuary is not 300
years old, but is the work of the early Jesuit Fathers of this country,
who are known to have frequented the Onondaga Valley from 220
to 250 years ago; that it would probably bear a date in history
corresponding with the monumental stone which was found at
Pompey Hill, in this county, and now deposited in the Academy at
Albany. There are no marks of violence upon the work; had it been
an image or idol of worship by the Indians, it could have been easily
destroyed or mutilated with a slight blow by a small stone, and the
toes and fingers could have been easily broken off. It lay in
quicksand, which, in turn, rested upon compact clay.

My conclusion regarding the object of the deposit of the statue
in this place, is as follows:--It was for the purpose of hiding
and protecting it from an enemy who would have destroyed it, had
it been discovered. It must have been carefully laid down, and
as carefully covered with boughs and twigs of trees which prevented
it from being discovered. Traces of this new decomposed vegetable
covering can be seen on every side of the trench, and it is quite
evident this vegetable matter originally extended across and above
the statue.

Above this stratum of decayed matter, there is a deposit of very
recent date, from eighteen inches to two feet in thickness, which
may have been washed in, and likewise turned on by plowing. A
farmer who had worked the land, told me that he had "back furrowed"
around it, for the purpose of filling up the slough where the statue
now lies.