Ancient Worhs in the Ohio Valley. 187 



formed by an imprisoned bowlder, but that they were of artificial 



ongni. 



According to the same authority there is a high hill bordering the 

 valley of the Saline River, in Illinois, on which there is a walled fort, 

 the walls being from four to five feet high, and inclosing less than an 

 acre. On the south side access is cut off by a precipitous descent, in 

 the form of a cliff, from forty to fifty feet in height, but on the north 

 side the sloj^e is gradual and very rocky. The walls conform to the 

 crest of the hill, which is very narrow, and the form of the fortified 

 position is that of an irregular square. Inside a number of holes, now 

 nearly filled, are seen, which may have been caches for storing provi- 

 sions. A narrow and zigzag passage, easily defended, leads down 

 to the river. The inhabitants call this locality " Stone Fort." 



The region, embracing the mouth of the Wabash River, in Indiana, 

 and the Kentucky shore opposite, including Greenup and Union 

 counties, is thickly studded with mounds. These were explored by 

 the late Sidney S. Lyon, who in a private letter remarks, that he has 

 seen the works of the Mound-builders in many vStates, but in no other 

 locality has he ever seen anything to compare in extent and import- 

 ance with those at this point. "If the mounds, ash-heaps, bone-beds, 

 etc., are any evidence of a formerly populous and settled country, it is 

 to be found here. In my examinations, 1 find nearly one hundred 

 mounds in an area of one hundred acres." 



Proceeding up the valley, we find the high banks of the river 

 crowned at frequent points by tliese ancient works. At Vincennes, 

 the Wabash is bordered by a broad alluvial tract, and the bluffs of 

 Loess attain a height of one hundred and fifty feet. The highest 

 mounds occur near the line of junction, and I am of the opinion that 

 the builders* shaped into form some of the knolls formed at a time 

 when the river extended to the foot of the bluffs. In 1859, according 

 to Mr. William Pidgeon, it became necessary to remove a mound on 

 the alluvial track in the suburbs of the city. It was about sixteen 

 feet in height, W'ith a diameter of sixty-six feet, and a section exhibited 

 five distinct strata. The first or lowest, consisted of a bed of human 

 bones, arranged in a circle, eighteen feet in diameter, closely pressed 

 together. Around the outer edge of this circle, the stratum was 

 thinner than in the center. Skulls, tibisej ribs, and vertebrae were 

 promiscuously mingled, as though a pile of bodies had been heaped 

 up. Over this was a uniform layer of tough, greyish clay, thirty-three 

 inches in thickness, succeeded by a layer of Avhat appeared to have 

 been ashes, with occasional fragments of bone ; and above this a twelve 

 inch stratum of surface soil ; and the whole was covered with clay. 



