VITRIFIED WALLS. 267 



ment or ridge is not straight/' "The ridge forming the 

 enclosure is 631 feet long at the north end, 1419 feet long on 

 the west side, and 700 feet on the south side ; making a total 

 length of wall of 2750 feet. The ridge or wall is about 22 

 feet wide, and from one foot to five in height. The wall of 

 earth is enlarged on the outside, at nearly regular distances, 

 by mounds of the same material. They are called buttresses, 

 or bastions ; but it is quite clear they were never intended 

 for either" the one or the other. They vary from sixty-one 

 to ninety-five feet apart, the mean distance being eighty-two 

 feet. Near the south-west angle are two outworks, constructed 

 in the same manner as the main embankment. 



In many places the earth forming the walls appears to 

 have been burnt. " Irregular masses of hard reddish clay, 

 full of cavities, bear distinct impressions of straw, or rather 

 wild hay, with which they had been mixed before burning." 

 " This is the only foundation for calling these ' brick walls/ 

 The 'bricks' were never made into any regular form, and it 

 is even doubtful whether the burning did not take place in 

 the wall after it was built." These walls must therefore pre- 

 sent some faint resemblance to the celebrated vitrified forts 

 of Scotland, and to fortifications of a similar character which 

 have recently been observed in France and Germany. Some 

 of the mounds or buttresses, though forming part of an enclo- 

 sure, were also used for sepulchral purposes, as was proved by 

 their containing skeletons in a sitting posture, with fragments 

 of pottery. The highest point inside the enclosure is at the 

 south-west corner, and is "occupied by a square truncated 

 mound, which .... presents the appearance of a pyramid, 

 rising by successive steps like the gigantic structures of 

 Mexico." "At the north-west angle of the enclosure is another 

 rectangular, truncated, pyramidal elevation, of sixty-five feet 

 level area at the top, with remains of its graded way, or 



