Ancient Works in the Ohio Valley. 183 



so far as may be necessary to illustrate the ethnography of the United 

 8tates. Not only are the banks of the Ohio at frequent intervals 

 crowned by these structures, but those of the subordinate streams, such 

 as the AVabash, the Scioto, the Miami, and the Muskingum, entering 

 from the north ; and those from the opposite side, such as the Kena- 

 whas, the Cumberland, and Tennessee. The number of tumuli in 

 Ohio alone is estimated by the authors before referred to at 10,000, 

 and the number of inclosures at from 1,000 to 1,500. Ross County, 

 of which Chiliicothe is the capital, contains 100 inclosures and 500 

 mounds. These facts, I think, clearly indicate that this region must 

 formerly have sustained a dense population, who derived their support 

 mainly from agriculture. 



In many of these works we met with a feature which plays but a 

 subordinate part in those before described, but which here becomes 

 the most conspicuous, and impresses the beholder most forcibly as to 

 the unity of design and mathematical precision which have been car- 

 ried out in their construction. I refer to the elaborately constructed 

 Avails of earth or stone with which the mounds are inclosed. In these 

 walls the geometrical figures of the square, the circle, the octagon, and 

 the rhomb are represented ; there are, too, gateways, parallel lines, 

 outlooks, and other forms — the whole forming an intricate and yet 

 harmonious system. 



The most intricate, if not the most gigantic of all the Mound-build- 

 ers' Avorks, occur in the Licking Valley, near Newark. They occupy 

 a plain between Raccoon Creek and the south fork of Licking Creek, 

 which is elevated from thirty to fifty feet above those water-courses, and 

 extends over an area of two square miles. 



I can only give a general description of the magnificent system of 

 works here displayed. Starting at the south the observer finds him- 

 self inclosed in a nearly circular embankment, twelve feet high and 

 fifty feet broad at the base, with an interior ditch seven feet deep and 

 thirty-five feet wide. At the gateway, which is marked by two 

 parallel lines eighty feet apart, the parapets rise to the height of 

 sixteen feet, with a ditch thirteen feet deep, making the altitude in 

 the interior about thirty feet. These walls do not form a true circle, 

 the respective diameters being 1,250 and 1,150 feet. The aKea inclosed 

 is upAvard of thirty acres ; and this site was fixed upon, and none 

 could be more picturesque for holding one of the annual State fairs. 

 In the center is a mound in the shape of a huge bird-track, the middle 

 toe being 155 feet, and the other two 110 feet in length. In front 

 is a semi-lunar embankment, slightly elevated, which is about 200 

 feet in length. No one whose mind is susceptible to whatever is grand 



