298 Some Facts and Considerations about Fort Ancient. 



noble respect for the dead which led to its selection as a final resting 

 place for the children of nature. The primeval forest still covers the 

 wall and a portion of the precipitous declivity to the river, an almost 

 sheer descent of two hundred and thirty feet. Projected far out into 

 the valley, the point of observation is one which commands an exten- 

 sive prospect of wood and field, stretching several miles to the north- 

 ward, until a sudden turn of the valley shuts off the view. Through 

 this lovely vale the "blue Miami" wends its way, between leaf-fringed 

 banks, ever changing, ever the same under the radiant sky of June 

 to-day, as when they whose moldering remains now attract our wonder- 

 ing gaze, roamed ages ago upon its shores, or, wearied from the chase, 

 sported in its limpid stream. 



About half way down the declivity, at this point, the three parallel 

 terraces described by Prof. Locke are still to be observed, now covered 

 with a dense and almost impenetrable undergrowth. The river here 

 suddenly expands into a large oval basin, of such extraordinary depth 

 and regular cincture as to seem an artificial formation. It is said, that 

 when the railroad was under construction around the base of the bluff, 

 the declivity being such as to require a foundation for the road-bed 

 partially built up from the river bottom, the great depth of the basin 

 was a serious obstacle, and a vast amount of material was required to 

 make the railway embankment of the requisite width. This portion 

 of the river has for years been designated by residents in the locality 

 as the "deep-hole," and twenty years ago, after being partially filled 

 by the debris of the railway bed, was over thirty feet deep. It is now 

 nearly twenty feet in depth, with a bottom of soft mud, washed in by 

 freshets. The shores exhibit no such conditions as would create a 

 whirlpool or other excavating agency during high water; and in the 

 apparent absence of any natural cause, we might be justified in assum- 

 ing that it was excavated by the Builders, in connection with a subter- 

 ranean communication between the fort and the river, in which case the 

 terraces before mentioned would appear to have been designed as 

 stations for guards, to protect the mouth of such passage from hostile 

 attempts during a siege. An unusually large depression within the 

 fort, nearly opposite to this point, now filled with soft mud, washed into 

 it from the surrounding surfaces, gives some color to this supposition ; 

 especially, in connection with a tradition of the existence of some sub- 

 terranean passage within the fort, founded upon the disappearance and 

 reappearance of game when pursued, which is held by residents who 

 have been accustomed to hunt in the woods of the vicinity. 



But, warned by the length of this article, it remains only to speak 

 of one or two exterior features, of which no mention has been made by 



