… An 1847 commercial reprint of Squier's early report on the work in the mounds, a year before publication of the better-known Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.

… Original page numbers are in red.

… Comments by me are in blue, and the

… original notes by Squier in green

… [these were not necessarily on the page of the original on which they are given here]

Transcribed by Jon Muller, 2002, from the original. Please report any errors in the transcription to jmuller@siu.edu.

PAPER COVER

/3/

[Plate 1 facing title page, folded]

OBSERVATIONS,

ON THE

ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS

OF THE

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY;

THE CHARACTER OF THE ANCIENT EARTH-WORKS, AND THE STRUCTURE,

CONTENTS, AND PURPOSES OF THE MOUNDS; WITH

NOTICES OF THE MINOR REMAINS

OF ANCIENT ART.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

BY E. G. SQUIER,

FROM THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

NEW-YORK:

BARTLETT & WELFORD.

1847.

\4\

LEAVITT, Trow & Co., Printers.

23 Ann street.

\5\

ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. *

* WITHIN the past two years, public attention has several times beet] directed to the extensive investigations in progress, by Messrs. E. G. Squier and E. H. DAVIS, M. D., of Ohio, into the aboriginal remains of the West, and particularly those of the Ohio valley. During this period, these gentlemen were in constant communication with the American Ethnological Society, of which they are members ; and it was early proposed, and preparations accordingly made, to embody the results of their inquiries in its published Transactions, Their researches, however, were subsequently so greatly extended, and crowned with such remarkable results, as to place their publication, in an adequate style of illustration, entirely beyond any means at the command of the Society. At this juncture, their MSS. and ‑accompanying illustrations, were submitted to the newly organized Smithsonian Institution, and accepted for publication as the first volume of the " SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE." This work, greatly surpassing in magnitude, as in the number, importance, and interesting nature of its facts, any publication of the kind ever before undertaken in this country, is now in press, and will be issued some time during the ensuing winter. The paper herewith presented, embraces only such detached general observations as may Serve to illustrate the antiquities of our country, without anticipating any of the more important discoveries and interesting details of the prospective great work from the same hands, and must not be taken to exhibit a complete or adequate view of the subject. It only aims to group. and in some degree to generalize, the various ancient remains of the West, so as to furnish some rational conception of their extent variety, and prevailing character.

THAT the western portion of the United States, embraced within the great basin of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, abounds with rude but imposing monuments, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of antiquity, is \6\ a fact generally known. Very imperfect notions, however, of the extent, number, and character of these remains are entertained by the world at large. Even where they are most abundant and interesting, the general ignorance, in these respects, appears greatest. It seems strange that hitherto, while every other branch of research has enlisted active and enlightened minds in its elucidation, the archeological field has been left comparatively unoccupied. It is true, isolated and detached observations, and occasional limited explorations, have been made, serving to provoke rather than satisfy inquiry; but nothing like a thorough and systematic investigation, carried on over an extended field, has heretofore been attempted. This has resulted less, perhaps, " because men are incurious about nearer, and intent upon more distant objects,"* than from the lack, among a pioneer population, of the time and money necessary to so laborious and costly an undertaking, and of the inducements which enlightened approbation, in older communities, holds out to original research and development. Account far the fact as we may, there is no doubt that, up to this time, the world has been put in possession of too few well‑ authenticated facts, relating to the ancient aboriginal monuments of our country, to enable the inquirer to form any satisfactory conclusion as to their extent, number, character, origin, or purposes. Their absence has been poorly supplied by speculations, which, however ingenious they may be, have no firmer foundation than the fancy of their authors, and can serve only further to involve a subject already sufficiently obscure, and which cannot be elucidated except by a strict observance of the rule, regulating scientific research.

* Pliny,

It was under a vivid impression of the general deficiency, in this respect,‑‑the extreme paucity of facts, and the very loose manner in which they had been presented, that the writer of this memoir, and his associate, E. H. \7\ DAVIS, M. D., of Ohio, commenced the series of investigations, a brief and very general statement of some of the results of which is herewith presented. It is proper to remark, that these investigations were set on foot, with no view to ulterior publication, but to satisfy individual inquiry. At the outset, all preconceived notions were abandoned, and the work of research commenced, as if no speculations bad been indulged in, nor any thing before been known, respecting the singular remains of antiquity scattered so profusely wound us. It was concluded that, either the field should be entirely abandoned to the poet and the romancer, or, if these monuments were capable of reflecting any certain light upon the grand archeological questions connected with the primitive history of the American continent, the origin, migration, and early state of the American race, that then they should be carefully and minutely, and above all, systematically investigated.

The locality chosen for the commencement of operations, is a section of the Scioto River and Paint Creek valleys, of which the city of Chillicothe is the centre, and which possesses a deserved celebrity for its beauty, unexampled fertility, and the great number, size, and variety of its ancient remains. Situated in the middle of Southern Ohio, and possessing a mild and salubrious climate, this seems to have been one of the centres of ancient population ; and, probably, no other equal portion of the Mississippi basin furnishes so rich and interesting a field for the antiquary. A glance at the accompanying " Map of a Section of Twelve Miles of the Scioto Valley, with its Ancient Monuments," will fully illustrate this remark.

The plan of operations was agreed upon, and the fieldwork commenced, early in the spring of 1845. Subsequently, the plan was greatly extended, and the investigations were carried on, with slight interruption, up to the summer of 1847. The scope of this paper will not admit of a detailed account of the mode in which the explorations were con\8\ducted, nor of their extent. It is perhaps sufficient to say, that the surveys were, for the most part, made by the writer and his associate in person, and that the excavations were all of them conducted under their personal direction and supervision. Great care was exercised in noting down, on the spot, every fact, however minute, which might be of value, in the solution of the problems of the origin and purposes of the remains under notice ; and particular attention was bestowed in observing the dependencies of the position, structure, and contents of the various works in respect to each other and the general features of the country. Indeed, no exertion was spared to ensure entire accuracy, and the compass and line, the rule and the spade, were alone relied upon, in matters too often left to an approximate estimate or to conjecture.

The ancient earth‑works (enclosures) personally examined and surveyed are upwards of one hundred, and the mounds excavated not far from two hundred, in number. Several thousand remains of ancient art were also collected in the progress of the investigations, chiefly from the mounds themselves. These constitute a cabinet, as valuable in its extent, as interesting in the great variety and the singular character of the illustrations which it furnishes of the condition of the domestic and minor arts of the people by whom these monuments were erected. A description of these would alone fill a volume. The most, therefore, which can be done, in the compass of this paper, is to give a brief general view of the extent of the aboriginal monuments of the West, with a few examples of certain classes, in which their predominant features are presented.

Extent and General Character of the Aboriginal Monu‚ments of the West.

The aboriginal monuments of the Western United States, consist, for the most part, of elevations and em\9\bankments of earth and stone, erected with great labor and manifest design. In connection with these, more or less intimate, are found various minor relics of art, consisting of ornaments and implements of many kinds, some of them composed of metal, but most of stone. They spread over a vast extent of country. They are found on the sources of the Alleghany, in the western part of the State of New York, on the east; and extend thence westwardly along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and through Michigan and Wisconsin to Iowa and the Nebraska territory, on the west.*

* It is a fact not generally known, that there is an abundance of tumuli or mounds in the Territory of Oregon. We are not informed, however, that there are any enclosures or other works of like character with those usually accompanying the mounds of the "Mississippi valley, nor whether the mounds of Oregon are generally disseminated over that territory. The only reference we have to them is contained in a paragraph in the Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition:

" We soon reached the Bute Prairies, which are extensive and covered with tumuli or small mounds, at regular distances asunder. As far as I can learn, there is no tradition among the natives concerning them. They are conical mounds, thirty feet in diameter, about six or seven feet above the level, and many thousands in number. Being anxious to ascertain if they contained any relics, I subsequently visited these prairies, and opened three of the mounds, but found nothing in them but a pavement of round stones." U. S. E. E., Vol. iv. p. 313.

We have no record of their occurrence above the lakes, nor higher than the falls of the Mississippi. Carver mentions some on the shores of Lake Pepin; and Lewis and Clarke saw them on the Missouri river, 1000 miles above its junction with the Mississippi. They are found all over the intermediate country, and along the valley of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. They line the shores of the Gulf from Texas to Florida, and extend, in diminished numbers, into South Carolina. They occur in great numbers in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi , Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. They are found, in less numbers, in the western portions of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; as well as in Michigan, \10\ Iowa, North and South Carolina, and in the Mexican territory, beyond the Rio Grande del Norte. In short, they occupy the entire basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries, as also the fertile plains along the Gulf.

It is not to be understood that these remains are dispersed equally over the area here defined. They are mainly confined to the valleys of the streams, occupying the level, fertile terraces, and seldom occuring very far back from them.

Their number is well calculated to excite surprise, and has been adduced in support of the hypothesis‑which has not been without its advocates‑that they are most, if not all of them, natural formations, "the results of diluvial action," modified perhaps, in a few instances, but never erected by man. Of course no such hypothesis was ever advanced by any individual who had enjoyed the opportunity of examining these remains for himself.

Some estimate may be formed of their great abundance, in certain portions of the country, by an inspection of the accompanying Map, which exhibits a section of twelve miles of the Scioto valley. It will be observed that not less than ten large groups of earth‑works occur within the space designated, besides which there is a large number of mounds and lesser monuments. Twenty‑four of these mounds are found within a single enclosure, E, three miles above the city of Chillicothe. The large works, H and K, have each not far from two miles of embankment, and enclose little less than one hundred acres. Not far from one hundred enclosures and five hundred mounds are found in Ross county, Ohio, alone; and the remains of the State may be safely estimated at ten thousand mounds and one thousand or fifteen hundred enclosures, of all sizes. Many of them are, of course, small, but cannot be omitted in an enumeration.

Nor is their magnitude less a matter of surprise than their numbers. Lines of embankment, varying in height from five to fifteen feet, and enclosing areas of from one to \11\ fifty acres, are common; while enclosures of one hundred or two hundred acres area are far from infrequent. Occasional works are found, embracing not less than five or six hundred acres.*

* Lewis and Clarke describe one on the Missouri river which they estimated to contain six hundred acres.

The magnitude of the area enclosed is not, however, always an index of the amount of the labor expended in the construction of these works, or of the length of the embankment raised. A fortified hill, in Highland county, Ohio, has one mile and five‑eighths of heavy embankment; yet it encloses an area of only about forty acres. A similar work, on the Little Miami river, in Warren county, Ohio, has upwards of four miles of embankment yet encloses but little upwards of one hundred acres. The group of works at the mouth of the Scioto river has an aggregate of at least twenty miles of embankment; yet the amount of land embraced within the walls does not exceed two hundred acres.

The mounds are of every conceivable dimension, from those of but a few feet in height and a few yards in diameter, to those which, like the celebrated one at the mouth of Grave Creek, in Virginia, measure one thousand feet in circumference by seventy feet in height; or, like the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, in Illinois, rise to the altitude of nearly one hundred feet, and measure half a mile in circumference at the base, with a level summit of several acres area. Their usual dimensions are, however, considerably less than in the examples here given. The larger number range from six to thirty feet in height, by forty to one hundred feet base.

These constructions are composed of earth or stone, taken up on the spot, or brought from localities more or less remote; though a combination of these materials, in the same work, is by no means rare. In the absence of ditches interior or exterior to the embankments, pits or dug holes, from which the earth for their construction was taken, are generally visible near by. These are sometimes very \12\ broad and deep, and occasionally quite symmetrical in shape. In the vicinity of large mounds, such excavations are also common.*

* These are the "wells" of Mr. Atwater and other writers on American Antiquities. It is barely possible that a few were really wells, or secondarily designed for reservoirs.

A large, perhaps the larger, portion of these works are regular in outline, the square and the circle predominating. Some are parallelograms, some ellipses, others polygons, regular and irregular. The regular works are almost invariably erected on level river‑terraces, great care having evidently been taken to select those least broken. The irregular works are those which partake most of the character of defences, and are usually made to conform to the nature of the ground upon which they are situated--running along the brows of hills, or cutting off the approaches to strong natural positions. The square and the circle often occur in combination, frequently communicating with each other or with irregular works, directly or by avenues consisting of parallel lines of embankment. Detached parallels are frequent. The mounds are usually simple cones in form, but they are sometimes truncated, and occasionally terraced, with graded or winding ascents to their summits. Some are elliptical, others peariform, and others squares or parallelograms, with flanking terraces. Besides these there are others, most common in the extreme northwest, which assume the forms of animals and reptiles. Another variety of remains are the causeways or "roads," and the graded descents to rivers and streams, or from one terrace to another.

As already remarked, these remains occur mainly in the valleys of the Western rivers and streams. The alluvial terraces, or "river bottoms," as they are popularly termed, were the favorite sites of the builders. The principal monuments are found where these "bottoms" are most extended, and where the soil is most fertile and easy \13\ of cultivation. At the junction of streams, where the valleys are usually broadest and most favorable for their erection, some of the largest and most singular remains are found. The works at Marietta, at the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio; at the mouth of Grave Creek; at Portsmouth, the mouth of the Scioto; and at the mouth of the Great Miami, are instances in point. Occasional works are found on the hill tops, overlooking the valleys, or at a little distance from them ; but these are manifestly,

in most instances, works of defence or last resort, or in some way connected with warlike purposes. And it is worthy of remark, that the sites selected for settlements, towns, and cities, by the invading Europeans, are often those which were the especial favorites of the mound‑build‚ers, and the seats of their heaviest population. Marietta Newark, Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Circleville, and Cincinnati, in Ohio ; Frankfort in Kentucky; and St. Louis in

Missouri, may be mentioned in confirmation of the remark. The centres of population are now, where they were at the period when the mysterious race of the mounds flourished.*

* "The most dense ancient population existed in precisely the places where the most crowded future population will exist in ages to come. The appearance of a series of mounds generally indicates the contiguity of rich and level lands, easy communications, fish, game, and the most favorable adjacent positions." ‑Flint.

The monuments throughout the entire Mississippi valley possess certain grand points of resemblance, going to establish a common origin. Whether they were contemporaneous in their erection, or constructed by a people slowly migrating from one portion of the valley to the other, under the pressure of hostile neighbors or the inducements of a more genial climate, are questions open to inquiry, and which proper investigations may satisfactorily answer. It is quite certain, however, and this fact is of importance in the consideration of these questions, that the mounds increase in magnitude and regularity, if not in numbers, as \14\ we go down the Mississippi towards the Gulf. And although between the monuments of the North and the South there is a marked contrast, in many respects; yet it would be impossible to tell, so gradually do they merge into each other, where one series terminates and the other begins. It is not impossible that future investigations may show an imperceptible transition from the more regular earth‑structures of the lower Mississippi, to the symmetrical and imposing stone teocalli of Mexico.

The remains of which we are speaking may be divided into two grand classes, viz., ENCLOSURES, bounded by parapets, circumvallations or walls, and simple Tumuli or MOUNDS.* They constitute together a single system of works; but, for purposes which will satisfactorily appear, it is preferred to classify them as above. These grand classes resolve themselves into other minor divisions: Enclosures are for defence, for sacred or superstitious and for other purposes not easily explained ; and the Mounds are places of sepulture, of sacrifice, &c.

* The term mound is used in this paper, for obvious reasons, in a technical sense, as synonymous with tumulus or barrow, and as distinct from embankment, rampart, etc.

Enclosures.

The Enclosures, or, as they are familiarly known throughout the West, "Forts," constitute a very important and interesting class of remains. Their dimensions, and the popular opinion as to their purposes, attract to them more particularly the attention of observers. As a consequence, most that has been written upon our antiquities relates to them. Quite a number have been surveyed and described by different individuals, at different times; but no systematic examination of a sufficient number to justify any general conclusion as to their origin and purposes has hitherto been made. Accordingly we have had presented as many different conclusions as \15\ there have been individual explorers ; one maintaining that all the enclosures were intended for defence, while another persists that none could possibly have been designed for any such purpose. A sufficiently extended investigation would have shown, however, that while certain works possess features demonstrating incontestably a warlike origin, others were connected with the superstitions of the builders, or designed for purposes not readily apparent in our present state of knowledge concerning them.

It has already been remarked that the square and the circle, separate or in combination, were favorite figures with the mound‑builders; and a large proportion of their works in the Scioto valley and in Ohio are of these forms. Most of the circular works are small, varying from 250 to 300 feet in diameter, while others are a mile or more in circuit. Some stand isolated, but most in connection with one or more mounds, of greater or less dimensions, or in connection with other more complicated works. Wherever the circles occur, if there be a fosse or ditch, it is almost invariably interior to the parapet. Instances are frequent where no ditch is discernible, and where it is evident that the earth composing the parapet was brought from a distance or taken up evenly from the surface. In the square or irregular works, if there be a fosse at all, it is exterior to the embankment, except in the case of fortified hills, when the earth, for the best of reasons, is usually thrown from the ‑interior. These facts are not without their importance in determining the character and purpose of these remains. Another fact bearing directly upon the degree of knowledge possessed by the builders is, that many if not most of the circular works are perfect circles, and that many of the rectangular works are accurate squares. This fact has been demonstrated, in numerous instances, by careful admeasurements, and has been remarked in cases where the works embrace an area of many acres, and where the embankments or circumvallations are a mile or upwards in extent.

\16\

WORKS OF DEFENCE.‑Those works, which are incontestably defensive, usually occupy strong natural positions. To understand fully their character and capacity for the purpose assigned to them, it is necessary to notice briefly the predominant features of the country in which they occur.

The valley of the Mississippi, from the base of the Alleghanies to the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, is a vast sedementary basin, and owes its general aspect to the powerful action of water. Its rivers have worn their valleys deep in a vast original plain, leaving in their gradual subsidence broad terraces, marking the different eras of their history. The edges of the table lands, bordering on the valleys, are cut by a thousand ravines, presenting bluff headlands and high hills with level summits, sometimes connected by narrow isthmuses with the original table, and sometimes entirely detached. The sides of these elevations are always steep and difficult of ascent in some cases precipitous and absolutely inaccessible. The natural strength of such positions, and their susceptibility of defence, would certainly suggest them as the citadels of a rude people, having hostile neighbors or pressed by foreign invaders. Accordingly, we are not surprised at often finding these heights occupied by strong and complicated works, the design of which is indicated no less by their position than by their peculiarities of construction. In such cases it is always to be observed that great care has been exercised in their selection, and that they possess peculiar strength and adaptation for the purposes to which they were applied. While rugged and steep on most sides, they have one or more points of comparatively easy approach, in the protection of which the utmost skill of the builders has been expended. They are guarded by double overlapping walls, or a series of them, having sometimes an accompanying mound, designed perhaps as a " look‑out," and corresponding to the barbican in the British system of \17\ defence, of the middle ages. The usual defence is a simple parapet thrown up along and a little below the brow of the hill, varying in height and solidity as the declivity is more or less steep and difficult of access.

Other defensive works occupy the peninsulas formed by the streams, or cut off the bluff points formed by their junction with each other. In such cases a fosse and wall are carried across the isthmus, or diagonally from the bank of one stream to that of the other. In certain instances the wall is double, and extends along the bank of the stream for some distance inwardly, as if designed to prevent an enemy from turning the flank of the defence.

To understand clearly the nature of the works last mentioned, it should be remembered that the banks of the Western rivers are always steep, and, where these works are located, invariably high; the banks of the various terraces are also steep, ranging from ten to thirty and more feet in height. The rivers are constantly shifting their channels, and frequently cut their way through all the intermediate up to the earliest formed or highest terrace, presenting bold banks, inaccessibly steep, and from fifty to one hundred feet high. At such points, from which the river has in some instances receded to the distance of half a mile or more, works of this description are oftenest found.

And it is a fact of much importance and worthy of special note, that within the scope of a pretty extended observation, no work of any kind has been found occupying the latest formed terrace.*

* This observation is confirmed by all who have given attention to the subject in the Ohio and Upper Mississippi valleys. Along the Gulf and at points on the Lower Mississippi, where the entire country is low and subject to inundation, some of the ancient monuments are invaded by the water.

This terrace alone, except at periods of extraordinary freshets, is subject to overflow. The formation of each terrace constitutes a sort of semi-geological era in the history of the valley; and the fact that none of the works occur upon the lowest or latest formed \18\ of these, while they are found indiscriminately upon all the others, bears directly upon the question of their antiquity.

These general remarks will serve to introduce one or two examples of Defensive Works, which will best illustrate their general character.

Plate 2.‑This fine work is situated in Butler county, Ohio, three miles below the town of Hamilton, on the west side of the Great Miami river. The hill, the summit of which it occupies, is about half a mile distant from the present bed of the river, and is not far from two hundred and fifty feet high, being considerably more elevated than any other in the vicinity. It is surrounded at all points, except a narrow space towards the north, by deep ravines, presenting steep and almost inaccessible declivities. The slope towards the north is very gradual, and from that direction the hill is easy of approach. It is covered by a primitive forest.

Skirting the brow of the hill, and generally conforming to its outline, is a wall of mingled earth and stone, having an average height of five feet by thirty‑five base. It has no apparent ditch, the earth composing it, which is a stiff clay, having been for the most part taken up from the surface, without leaving any marked excavations. There are a number of pits or, dug holes," however, at various points within the walls, from which it is evident a portion of the material was obtained. The wall is interrupted by four openings or gateways, each about twenty feet wide; one fronting the north, on the approach above mentioned, and the others occurring where the spurs of the hill are cut off by the parapet, and where the declivity is least abrupt. They are all, with one exception, protected by inner lines of embankment of a most singular and intricate description. These are accurately delineated in the plan, which will best explain their character. It will be observed that the northern or great gateway, in addition to its inner maze of walls, \19\ has an outwork of crescent shape, the ends of which approach within a short distance of the brow of the hill.

The excavations are near the gateways: none of them are more than sixty feet over, nor have they any considerable depth. Nevertheless they all, with the exception of the one nearest to gateway S, contain water for the greater portion if not the whole of the year. A pole may be thrust eight or ten feet into the soft mud at the bottom of those at E.

At S and H, terminating the parapet, are mounds of stones, thrown loosely together, eight feet in height. Thirty rods distant from gateway N, and exterior to the work, is a mound ten feet high, on which trees of the largest size are growing. It was partially excavated a number of years ago, and a quantity of stones taken out, all of which seemed to have undergone the action of fire.

The ground in the interior of the work gradually rises, as indicated in the section, to the height of twenty‑six feet above the base of the wall, and overlooks the entire adjacent country. In the vicinity of this work, are a number of others occupying the valley‑no less than six, of large size, occurring within a distance of six miles down the river.

The character of this structure is too obvious to admit of doubt. The position which it occupies is naturally strong, and no mean degree of skill is employed in its artificial defences. Every accessible avenue is strongly guarded. The principal approach, the only point of easy access, or capable of successful assault, is rendered doubly secure. A mound, used perhaps as an alarm post, is placed at a short distance in advance, and a crescent wall crosses the isthmus, leaving but narrow passages between its ends and the steeps on either hand. Next comes the principal wall of the enclosure. In event of an attack, even though both these defences were forced, there still remained a series of walls so complicated as inevitably to distract and bewilder the assailants, thus giving a marked advantage to the defenders. This advantage may have been regarded as more consider\20\able than we, in our ignorance of the military system of the ancient people, would suppose. From the manifest judgment with which their military positions were chosen, as well as from the character of their entrenchments, so far as we understand them, it is safe to conclude that all parts of this work were the best calculated to secure the objects of the builders, under the mode of attack and defence then practised. On the assumption that the embankments of this work were crowned with palisades, it is easy to comprehend that it afforded entire security against any assault by rude or savage foes.

The coincidences between the guarded entrances of this and similar works throughout the West, and those of the ancient Mexican defences, are singularly striking. The wall on the eastern side of the Tlascallan territories, mentioned by Cortez and other early writers, was six miles long, having a single entrance thirty feet wide, which was formed as shown in the supplementary plan A. The ends of the walls overlapped each other in the form of semicircles, having a common centre. *

*On leaving the territory (of Clempoallan) I met with a large wall of dry stone, about nine feet in height, which extended across from one moun‚tain to the other: it was twenty feet in thickness, and surmounted throughout its whole extent by a breastwork a foot and a half thick, to enable them to fight from the top of the wall. There was but one entrance, about ten paces wide, where one portion of the wall was encircled by the other, in the manner of a ravelin, for about forty paces. Thus the entrance was circuitous and not direct. Having inquired into the origin of this wall, I was informed it was erected on account of the place being the frontiers of the province of Tlascalla, whose inhabitants were enemies of Montezuma and always at war with him. ‑Second Letter of Cortez; see also Bernal Diaz, De Solis, and Clavigero.

The work above described may be taken as a very fair example of this class of structures, although nearly every work has interesting individual features, which can only be exhibited in connection with plans of the works themselves. Many are of vast dimensions; indeed, the works of greatest magnitude are those which are most clearly of defensive \21\ origin. A fortified hill in the vicinity of Chillicothe embraces one hundred and forty acres within its walls; and another military work‑most probably a fortified village on the banks of the North Fork of Paint Creek, five miles from Chillicothe, has an area of one hundred and twenty-seven acres. To appreciate fully the judgment displayed in the choice of position, and the skill exhibited in defence, a minute examination of a series of these structures is necessary. No one can rise from such an examination without being convinced that the race by whom they were erected possessed no inconsiderable knowledge of the science of defence‑a degree of knowledge much superior to that known to have been possessed by the North American tribes previous to the discovery by Columbus, or indeed, subsequent to that event. Their number and magnitude must also impress the inquirer with enlarged notions of the power of the people commanding the means for their construction, and whose numbers required such extensive works for their protection. It is not impossible that they were, to a certain extent, designed to embrace cultivated fields, so as to furnish the means of sustenance to their defenders in event of a protracted siege. There is no other foundation, however, for this suggestion than that furnished by the size of some of these defensive enclosures. The population finding shelter within their walls must have been exceedingly large, if their dimensions may be taken as the basis of a calculation.

The vast amount of labor necessary to the erection of most of these works precludes the notion that they were hastily constructed to check a single or unexpected invasion. On the contrary there seems to have existed a system of defences, extending from the sources of the Alleghany in New‑York diagonally across the country, through central Ohio to the Wabash. Within this range, those works which are regarded as defensive are largest and most numerous. If an inference may be drawn from this \22\ fact, it is that the pressure of hostilities was from the northeast; or that, if the tide of migration flowed from the south, it received its final check upon this line. On the other hypothesis, that in this region originated a semi‑civilization which subsequently went southward, constantly developing itself in its progress, until it attained its height in Mexico, we may suppose from this direction came the hostile savage hoards, before whose incessant attacks the less warlike mound‑builders gradually receded, or beneath whose exterminating cruelty they entirely disappeared‑leaving these monuments alone to attest their existence, and the extraordinary skill with which they defended their altars and their homes. Upon either assumption it is clear that the contest was a protracted one, and that the race of the mounds were for a long period constantly exposed to attack. This conclusion finds its support in the fact that, in the vicinity of those localities, where, from the amount of remains, it appears the ancient population was most dense, we almost invariably find one or more works of a defensive character, furnishing ready places of resort in times of danger. We may suppose that a state of things existed somewhat analogous to that which attended the advance of our pioneer population, when every settlement had its little fort, to which the settlers flocked in case of alarm or attack.

It may be suggested that there existed among the mound‑builders a state of society something like that which prevailed amongst the Indians ; that each tribe had its separate seat, maintaining an almost constant warfare against its neighbors, and, as a consequence, possessing its own "castle," as a place of final resort when invaded by a powerful foe. Apart from the fact, however, that the Indians were hunters, averse to labor, and not known to have constructed any works approaching, in skilfulness of design or in magnitude, those under notice, there is almost positive evidence that the mound‑builders were an agricul\23\tural people, considerably advanced in the arts, and possessing great uniformity, throughout the whole territory which they occupied, in manners, habits, and religion, a uniformity sufficiently marked to identify them as a single people, having a common origin, common modes of life, and as a consequence, common sympathies, if not a common and consolidated government.

SACRED WORKS. -The structure, no less than the form and position, of a large number of the earth‑works of the West, and more particularly of the Scioto valley, render it clear that they were erected for other than defensive purposes. *

* It seems incredible that many well‑informed men, who have examined some of the small circular and elliptical works of the West, should have fallen into the palpable error of supposing them defensive in their origin. Major Long (Second Exp. Vol. i., p. 54) describes some petty works in the vicinity of Piqua, Ohio, consisting of a number of small circles, as of undoubted warlike origin, applying to them the terms of military technology. One of these circles, which he regards as a "redoubt;' is 43 feet in diameter, and has its ditch interior to the wall ! A famous defence, truly, contrasted with the fortified hills already described !

The small dimensions of most of the circles, the occurrence of the ditch interior to the embankment, and the fact that many of them are completely commanded by adjacent heights, may be mentioned as sustaining this conclusion. We must seek, therefore, in the connection in which these works are found, and in the character and contents of the mounds, if such there be, within their walls for the secret of their origin. And it may be observed, that it is here we find evidence still more satisfactory and conclusive than furnished by the small dimensions of these works, or the position of the ditch, that they were not intended for defence. Thus, when we find enclosures containing a number of mounds, all of ‑which it is capable of demonstration were religious in their purposes, or in some way connected with the superstitions of the people who built them, the conclusion is irresistible that the enclosure \24\ itself was also deemed sacred, and thus set apart as " tabooed" or consecrated ground‑‑especially where it is obvious, at first glance, that it possesses none of the requisites of a military work. But it is not to be concluded that those enclosures alone, which contain mounds of the description here named, were designed for sacred purposes. We have reason to believe that the religious system of the mound‑builders, like that of the Mexicans, exercised among them a great, if not a controlling influence. Their government may have been, for aught we know, a government of the priesthood; one in which the priestly and civil functions were jointly exercised, and one sufficiently powerful to have secured in the Mississippi valley, as it did in Mexico, the erection of many of those vast monuments, which for ages will continue to challenge the wonder of men. There may have been certain superstitious ceremonies, having no connection with the purposes of the mounds, carried on in enclosures specially dedicated to them. There are several minor enclosures within the great defensive work already referred to, on the banks of the North Fork of Paint Creek, the purposes of which would scarcely admit of doubt, even though the sacred mounds which they embrace were wanting. It is a conclusion which every day's investigation and observation has tended to confirm, that most, perhaps all the earth‑works, not manifestly defensive in their character, were in some way connected with the superstitious rites of the builders, though in what manner, it is, and perhaps ever will be, impossible satisfactorily to determine.

What dim light analogy sheds upon this point goes to sustain this conclusion. The British Islands only afford works with which any comparison can safely be instituted. The "ring forts" of the ancient Celts are nearly identical in form and structure with a large class of remains in our own country; and these are regarded by all well‑informed British antiquaries as strictly religious in their origin, or connected with the rites of the ancient Druidical system. \25\ This conclusion is not entirely speculative, but rests in a great degree upon traditional and historical facts. The late Sir R. C. Hoare, author of "Ancient Wiltshire" (the most scientific as also the most splendid antiquarian work ever issued from the British press), regarded the occurrence of the fosse, interior to the wall, in a portion of the British works, as precluding the supposition of a military, and establishing their religious origin.

The character of these works has already been briefly indicated. They are generally regular in their structure, and occupy the broad and level river‑bottoms, seldom occurring upon the table‑lands, or where the surface is undulating or broken. Their usual form is that of the square or the circle; sometimes they are slightly elliptical. Occasionally we find them isolated, but oftenest in groups. The greater number of the circles are of small size, having a nearly uniform diameter of two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet, with the ditch invariably interior to the wall. These have always a single gateway, opening oftenest towards the east, but by no means observing a fixed rule in this respect. It frequently happens that they have one or more small mounds interior to their walls, of the class denominated sacrificial. These small circles occasionally occur within larger works of a defensive character. Apart from these, numerous little circles, from thirty to fifty feet in diameter, are observed in the vicinity of large works, consisting of a very light embankment of earth, and destitute of a gateway or entrance. It has been suggested that these are the remains of the ancient lodges or of other buildings. The accounts which we have of the traces left of the huts of the Mandans and other Indian tribes, at their deserted villages, render this supposition not improbable. It sometimes happens that we find small circles around the bases of large mounds ; these probably cannot be regarded as of the same character with that numerous class already described.

\26\

The larger circles are oftenest found in combination with rectangular works, connecting with them directly or by avenues. Some of these are of large size, embracing fifty or more acres. They seldom have a ditch; but whenever it occurs, it is interior to the wall. As in the case of the squares or rectangular works with which they are attached, (and which, it is believed, never have ditches, exterior or interior,) the walls are usually composed of earth taken up evenly from the surface, or from large pits in the neighborhood. Evident care seems in all cases to have been exercised, in procuring the material, to preserve the surface of the adjacent plain smooth, and as far as possible unbroken. This fact is in itself almost conclusive against the supposition of a defensive design, especially as we have abundant evidence that the mound‑builders understood perfectly the value of the external fosse in their works of defence. The walls of these works are, for the most part, comparatively slight, varying from three to seven feet in height. Sometimes they are quite imposing; as in the case of the great circle at Newark, Licking county, Ohio, where, at the entrance, the wall from the bottom of the ditch has a vertical height of not far from thirty feet. The square or rectangular works attending these large circles are of various dimensions, It has been observed, however, that certain groups are marked by a great uniformity of size. Five or six of these now occur to the writer, placed at long distances asunder, which are exact squares, each measuring one thousand and eighty feet side‑a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must possess some significance. It certainly establishes the existence of some standard of measurement among the ancient people, if not the possession of some means of determining angles. The rectangular works have almost invariably gateways at the angles and midway on each side, each of which is covered by a small interior mound or elevation. In some of the larger structures the openings are \27\ more numerous. A few of this description of remains have been discovered which are octagonal. One of large size, in the vicinity of Chillicothe, has the alternate angles coincident with each other, and the sides equal.

Another description of Works, probably akin to those here described, are the parallels, consisting of light embankments, seven or eight hundred feet in length and sixty or eighty apart.

Indeed, so various are these works, and so numerous their combinations, that it is impossible to convey any accurate conception of them, without entering into a minuteness of detail and an extent of illustration utterly beyond the limits of this paper. They are invested with singular interest, alike from their peculiar form and the character and contents of the mounds which they enclose. If we are right in the assumption that they are of sacred origin, and were the temples and consecrated grounds of the ancient people, we can, from their number and extent, form some estimate of the devotional fervor or superstitious zeal which induced their erection, and the predominance of the religious sentiment among their builders.

The magnitude of some of these structures is, perhaps, the strongest objection that can be urged against the position here assigned them. It is difficult to comprehend the existence of religious works, extending, with their attendant avenues, like those near Newark in Ohio, over an area of little less than four square miles ! We can find their parallels only in the great temples of Abury and Stonehenge in England, and Carnac in Brittany, and associate them with a mysterious worship of the Sun, or an equally mysterious Sabianism. Within the mounds enclosed in many of these sacred works, we find the altars upon which glowed their sacrificial fires, and where the ancient people offered their propitiations to the strange gods of their primitive superstition. These altars also furnish us with the too unequivocal evidence that the ritual of the mound-\28\builders, like that of the Aztecs, was disfigured by sanguinary observances, a‑ad that human sacrifices were not deemed unacceptable to the divinity of their worship. It is of course impossible in this connection to go into the details of the evidence upon this or kindred points of interest.

The Mounds.

Intimately connected with the interesting works already described are the mounds; of these, however, little has hitherto been known. The popular opinion, based, in a great degree, upon the well ascertained purposes of the barrows and tumuli occurring in certain parts of Europe and Asia, is, that they are simple monuments, marking the last ‑resting‑place of some great chief or distinguished individual, among the tribes of the builders. Some have supposed them to be the cemeteries, in which were deposited the dead of a tribe or a village, for a certain period, and that the size of the mound is an indication of the number inhumed. Others, that they mark the sites of great battles, and contain the bones of the slain. On all hands the opinion has been entertained, that they were devoted to sepulture alone. This received opinion is not, however, sustained by the investigations set on foot by the writer and his associate. The conclusion to which their observations have led, is, that the mounds were constructed for several grand and dissimilar purposes; or rather, that they are of different classes ;‑the conditions upon which the classification is founded being three in number‑namely: position, structure, and contents. 'In this classification, we distinguish

1st. Those mounds which occur in, or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures, which are stratified, and contain altars of burned clay or stone, and which were places of sacrifice, or in some way connected with religious rites and ceremonies.

2d. Those which stand isolated, or in groups, more or \29\ less remote from the enclosures, which are not stratified, which contain human remains, and which were the burial-places and monuments of the dead.

3d. Those which contain neither altars nor human remains, and which were places of observation, or the sites of structures.

These classes are broadly marked in the aggregate; but, in some instances, they seem to run into each other. Mounds of this mixed character, as well as those which, under our present condition of knowledge respecting them, do not seem to indicate any clear purpose, have been denominated anomalous. Of one hundred mounds excavated, sixty were altar or sacrificial mounds, twenty sepulchral, and twenty either places of observation or anomalous in their character. Such, however, is not the proportion in which they occur. From the fact that the mounds of sacrifice are most interesting and most productive in relies, the largest number excavated has been of that class. In the Scioto valley the mounds are distributed between the three classes specified, in very nearly equal proportions; the mounds of observation and the anomalous mounds constituting together about one third of the whole number.

Mounds of Sacrifice.‑The general characteristics of this class of mounds are :

1st. That they occur only within, or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures or sacred places.*

* It is not assumed to say that all the mounds occurring within enclosures are altar or sacrificial mounds. On the contrary, some are found which, to say the least, are anomalous, while others were clearly the sites of structures.

2d. That they are stratified.

3d. That they contain symmetrical altars of burned clay or stone, on which are deposited various remains, which, in all cases, have been more or less subjected to the action of fire.

Of the whole number of mounds of this class which \30\ were examined, four only were found to be exterior to the walls of enclosures, and these were but a few rods distant from the ramparts.

The fact of stratification, in these mounds, is one of great interest and importance. This feature has heretofore been remarked, but not described with proper accuracy; and has consequently proved an impediment to the recognition of the artificial origin of the mounds, by those who have never seen them. The stratification, so far as observed, is not horizontal, but always conforms to the convex outline of the mound.*

*Some of the mounds, on the lower Mississippi, are horizontally stratified, exhibiting alternate layers, from base to summit. These mounds differ in form from the conical structures here referred to, and were doubtless constructed for a different purpose. Some are represented as composed of layers of earth, two or three feet thick, each one of which is surmounted by a burned surface, which has been mistaken for a rude brick pavement. Others are composed of alternate layers of earth and human remains. Their origin is doubtless to be found in the annual bone burials of the Cherokees and other southern Indians, of which accounts are given by Bartram and other early writers. It is not impossible that, in rare instances, natural elevations have been modified by art so as to serve some of the purposes for which mounds were erected. In such the natural stratification would be preserved.

Nor does it resemble the stratification produced by the action of water, where the layers run into each other, but is defined with the utmost distinctness, and always terminates upon reaching the level of the surrounding earth. That it is artificial will, however, need no argument to prove, after an examination of one of the mounds in which the feature occurs; for, it would be difficult to explain, by what singular combination of "igneous and aqueous" action, stratified mounds were always raised over symmetrical monuments of burned clay or of stone.

The altars, or basins, found in ‑these mounds, are almost invariably of burned clay, though one or two of stone have been discovered. They are symmetrical, but not of uniform size and shape. Some are round, others elliptical, and others square, or parallelograms. Some are small, measuring barely two feet across, while others are fifty feet \31\ long by twelve and fifteen wide. The usual dimensions are from five to eight feet. All appear to have been modelled of fine clay, brought to the spot from a distance, and rest upon the original surface of the earth. In a few instances, a layer or small elevation of sand had been laid down, upon which the altar was formed. The elevation of the altars, nevertheless, seldom exceeds a foot or twenty inches, above the adjacent level. The clay of which they are composed is usually burned hard, sometimes to the depth of ten, fifteen, and even twenty inches. This is hardly to be explained, by any degree or continuance of heat, though it is manifest that in some cases the heat was intense. On the other hand, a number of these altars have been noticed, which are very slightly burned; and such, it is a remarkable fact, are destitute of remains.

The characteristics of this class of mounds will be best explained, by reference to the accompanying illustrations. It should be remarked, however, that no two are alike in all their details.

The mound, a section of which is here given, occurs in "Mound City," a name given to a group of twenty‑six mounds, embraced in one enclosure, on the banks of the Scioto river, three miles above the town of Chillicothe. It is seven feet high by fifty‑five feet base. A shaft, five feet square, was sunk from its apex, with the following results:

1st. Occurred a layer of coarse gravel and pebbles, which appeared to have been taken from deep pits, surrounding the enclosure, or from the bank of the river. This layer was one foot in thickness.

2d. Beneath this layer of gravel and pebbles, to the depth of two feet, the earth was homogeneous, though slightly mottled, as if taken up and deposited in small loads, from different localities. In one place appeared a deposit of dark colored, surface loam, and by its side, or covering it, there was a mass of the clayey soil of greater depth.

\32\

The outlines of these various deposits could be distinctly traced.

3d. Below this deposit of earth, occurred a thin and even layer of fine sand, a little over an inch in thickness.

4th. A deposit of earth, as above, eighteen inches in depth.

5th. Another stratum of sand, somewhat thinner than the one above mentioned.

6th. Another deposit of earth, one foot thick; beneath which was

7th. A third stratum of sand; below which was

8th. Still another layer of earth, a few inches in thickness; which rested on

9th. An altar, or basin, of burned clay.

This altar was perfectly round. Its form and dimensions are best shown by the supplementary plan, and section A. F F, is the altar, measuring from c to d, nine feet;

\33\

from a to e, five feet; height from b to e, twenty inches; dip of curve a r e, nine inches. The sides c a, e d, slope regularly, at a given angle. The body of the altar is burned throughout, though in a greater degree within the basin, where it was so hard as to resist the blows of a heavy hatchet, the instrument rebounding as if struck upon a rock. The basin, or hollow of the altar, was filled even full with fine dry ashes, intermixed with which were some fragments of pottery, of an excellent finish and elegant model, ornamented with tasteful carvings on the exterior. One of the vases, taken in fragments from this mound, has been very nearly restored. The sketch B, presents its outlines, and the character of its ornaments. Its height is six, its greatest diameter eight inches.* The material is hardly distinguishable from that composing the pottery of the ancient Peruvians; and in respect of finish, it is fully equal to the best Peruvian specimens. A few convex copper discs, much resembling the bosses used upon harnesses, were also found.

Above the deposit of ashes, and covering the entire basin, was a layer of silvery or opaque mica, in sheets, overlapping each other; and, immediately over the centre of the basin, was heaped a quantity of burned human bones, probably the amount of a single skeleton, in fragments. The position of these is indicated by o in the section. The layer of mica and calcined bones, it should be remarked, to prevent misapprehension, were peculiar to this individual mound, and were not found in any other of the class.

It will be seen, by the section, that at a point about two feet below the surface of the mound, a human skeleton was found. It was placed a little to the left of the centre, with the head to the cast, and was so much decayed as to render it impossible to extract a single bone entire. Above the skeleton, as shown in the section, the earth and outer layer of gravel and pebbles were broken up and \34\ intermixed. Thus while on one side of the shaft the strata were clearly marked, on the other they were confused. And, as this was the first mound of the class excavated, it was supposed, from this circumstance, that it had previously been opened by some explorer, and it had been decided to abandon it when the skeleton was discovered. Afterwards the matter came to be fully understood. No relies were found with this skeleton.

It is a fact well known, that the modern Indians, though possessing no knowledge of the origin or objects of the mounds, were accustomed to regard them with some degree of veneration. It is also known, that they sometimes buried their dead in them, in accordance with the almost invariable custom which leads them to select ,elevated points, and the brows of hills, as their cemeteries. That their remains should be found in the mounds, is therefore a matter of no surprise. They are never discovered at any great depth, not often more than eighteen inches or three feet below the surface. Their position varies in almost every case : most are extended at length, others have a sitting posture, while others again seem to have been rudely thrust into their shallow graves without care or arrangement. Rude implements of bone and stone, and coarse vessels of pottery, such as are known to have been in use among the Indians at the period of the earliest European intercourse, occur with some of them, particularly with those of a more ancient date; while modern implements and ornaments, in some cases of European origin, are found with the recent burials. The necessity therefore of a careful and rigid discrimination, between these deposits and those of the mound‑builders, will be apparent. From the lack of such discrimination, much misapprehension and confusion have resulted. Silver crosses, gun‑barrels, and French dial‑plates, have been found with skeletons in the mounds; yet it is not to be concluded that the mound‑builders were Catholics, or used \35\ fire‑arms, or understood French. Such a conclusion would, nevertheless, be quite as well warranted, as some which have been deduced from the absolute identity of certain relies, taken from the mounds, with articles known to be common among the existing tribes of Indians. The fact of remains occuring in the mounds, is in itself hardly presumptive evidence that they pertained to the builders. The conditions attending them can alone determine their true character. As a general rule, to which there are few exceptions, the only authentic and undoubted remains of the mound‑builders, are found directly beneath the apex of the mound, on a level with the original surface of the earth; and it may be safely assumed, that whatever deposits occur near the surface of the mounds are of a date subsequent to their erection.

In the class of mounds now under consideration we have data which will admit of no doubt, whereby to judge of the origin, as well as the relative periods, of the various deposits found in them. If the stratification already mentioned as characterizing them, is unbroken and undisturbed, if the strata are regular and entire, it is certain that whatever occurs beneath them, was placed there at the period of the construction of the mound. And if, on the other hand, these strata are broken up, it is equally certain that the mound has been disturbed, and new deposits made, subsequent to its erection. It is in this view, that the fact of stratification is seen to be important, as well as interesting; for it will serve to fix, beyond all dispute, the origin of many singular relies, having a decisive bearing on some of the leading questions connected with American Archaeology. The thickness of the exterior layer of gravel, &c., in mounds of this class, varies with the dimensions of the mound, from eight to twenty inches. In a very few instances, the layer, which may have been designed to protect the form of the mound, and which purpose it admirably subserves, is entirely wanting. The number and \36\ relative position of the sand strata are variable; in some of the larger mounds, there are as many as six of them, in no case less than one, most usually two or three.

In one case which fell under our observation, and in another, of which we have an account from the person who discovered it, the altar was of stone. This altar was elevated two and one‑half feet above the original surface of the earth, and was five feet long by four broad. It was a simple elevation of earth packed hard, and was faced, on every side and on top, with slabs of stone of regular form, and nearly uniform thickness. They were laid evenly, and, as a mason would say, "with close joints;" and though uncut by any instrument, the edges were straight and smooth. The stone is "the Waverly sandstone,," underlying the coal series, thin strata of which cap every hill. This stone breaks readily, with a rectangular fracture, and hence the regularity of the slabs is not so much a matter of surprise. This altar bore the marks of fire, and fragments of the mound‑builders' ornaments were found on and around it. What had originally been deposited there was probably removed by the modern Indians, who had opened the mound and buried one of their dead on the altar.

Mounds of this class are most fruitful in relies of the builders. On the altars have been found, though much injured and broken up by the action of fire, instruments and ornaments of silver, copper, stone, and bone ; beads of silver, copper, pearls, and shell; spear and arrow heads of flint, quartz, garnet, and obsidian; fossil teeth of the shark; teeth of the alligator ; marine shells; galena; sculptures of the human head, and of numerous animals; pottery of various kinds, and a large number of interesting articles, some of which evince great skill in art. No description of these can be given here.

Mounds of Sepulture.‑The mounds of sepulture \37\ stand apart from the enclosures, and, in their average dimensions, greatly exceed those of the first class. The celebrated mound at Grave Creek is of this class. They lack the gravel and sand strata, which characterize those already described, and are destitute of " altars." They invariably cover a skeleton (sometimes more than one, as at Grave Creek), which, at the time of its interment, was enclosed in a rude framework of timber, or enveloped in bark or coarse matting, the "'traces, in some instances the very casts of which, remain. The structure of a single mound of this class will serve to exhibit their peculiarities.

FIG. 2.

* Horizontal scale thirty feet, and vertical fifteen feet, to the inch.

The mound, of which the above is a section,* stands on the third , bottom" or terrace of the Scioto river, six miles below the town of Chillicothe. There are no enclosures nearer than a mile; though there are three or four other mounds, of smaller size, on the same terrace, within a few hundred yards. The mound is twenty‑two feet high, by ninety feet base. The principal excavation was made \38\ (as represented by the dotted lines in the section), from the west side, commencing at about one‑third of the height of the mound from the top. At ten feet below the surface, occurred a layer of charcoal (a), not far from ten feet square, and from two to six inches in thickness, slightly inclined from the horizontal, and lying mostly to the left of the centre of the mound. The coal was coarse and clear, and seemed to have been formed by the sudden covering up of the wood while burning, inasmuch as the trunks and branches retained their form, though entirely carbonized, and the earth immediately above as well as below, was burned of a reddish color. Below this layer the earth became much more compact and difficult of excavation. At the depth of twenty‑two feet, and on a level with the original surface, immediately underneath the charcoal layer, and, like that, somewhat to one side of the centre of the mound, was a rude timber framework (B), now reduced to an almost impalpable powder, but the cast of which was still retained in the hard earth. This enclosure of timber, measured from outside to outside, was nine feet long by seven wide, and twenty inches high. It had been constructed of logs laid one on the other, and had evidently been covered with other timbers, which had sunk under the superincumbent earth, as they decayed. The bottom had also been covered with bark, matting, or thin slabs-at any rate, a whitish stratum of decomposed material remained, covering the bottom of the parallelogram. Within this rude coffin, with its head to the west, was found a human skeleton, or rather the remains of one; for scarcely a fragment as long as one's finger could be recovered. It was so much decayed that it crumbled to powder under the slightest touch. Around the neck of the skeleton, forming a triple row, and retaining their position, as originally strung and deposited with the dead, were several hundred beads, made of ivory, or the tusks of some animal (C). Several of these still retain their polish, and bear \39\ marks which seem to indicate that they were turned in some machine, instead of being carved by hand. A few laminae of mica were also discovered, which completed the list of articles found with this skeleton. The feet of the skeleton were nearly in the centre of the mound. A drift beyond it developed nothing new, nor was a corresponding layer of charcoal found on the opposite side of the mound. It is clear, therefore, that the tumulus was raised over this single skeleton. In the case of a mound of this class, opened at Gallipolis, on the Ohio river, the chamber enclosing the skeleton was found just below the original surface, ‑which can always be detected by a strongly marked line and the uniform drab color of the earth beneath it.

The layer of charcoal is not uniformly found in mounds of this class, though it is a feature of frequent occurrence. It would seem to indicate that sacrifices were made for the dead, or that funeral rites of some kind were celebrated. The fire, in every case, was kept burning for a very brief space, as is shown by the lack of ashes, and the slight traces of its action left on the adjacent earth. That it was suddenly heaped over, is also proved by the facts already presented.

Bracelets of copper and silver; beads of bone and shell; mica plates and ornaments; stone instruments of various kinds, some of which are identical with those found in mounds of the first class, &c. &c., are found with the skeletons. In every instance falling within our observation, the s