Some Facts and Considerations about Fort Ancient. 291 



The position, naturally one of great strength in a military point of 

 view, is improved to the best possible advantage by lines of entrench- 

 ment, so placed as to enfilade all the more accessible points of ingress. 

 Vast quantities of river-worn limestones, laid with some degi-ee of 

 regularity into a wall, form the skeleton of the embankment, over 

 which the earth is massed to a height varying at the pi'esent day 

 from five to twenty-five feet. From a rude outline resemblance to the 

 continent of North and South America, some fanciful observers have 

 expressed the opinion that such resemblance was contemplated by the 

 builders; but, in the absence of any reasonable foundation for such 

 belief, we may safely adopt the more obvious conclusion that the 

 outline of the work was made to conform to the topography of the hill 

 which it crowns, so as to form the strongest defense. 



Upon first entering this stupendous fortification, one is irresistibly 

 impressed with its vast antiquity. The rounded sectional outline of 

 the wall, and the debris extending its base where the rains of ages 

 have deposited the loose earth washed from the slopes ; the numerous 

 breaks caused by the overflow of surface water ; and the deep gorges, 

 evidently formed since the construction and abandonment of the 

 work, which drain the interior, all indicate a condition requiring 

 centuries to produce. The native forest within a few years densely 

 covered the entire fort within and without. Giant beeches, oaks, and 

 other trees of slow development, stand indiscriminately within the 

 inclosure and upon the walls, and at their feet lie the prostrate trunks 

 of others fully as large, in all stages of decay; and scattered every- 

 where around them are the little hdlocks and depressions which mark 

 the spot where trees still more ancient grew and fell. 



[Judge Force, in his interesting pamphlet on the Mound Builders, 

 notes, upon the authority of Judge Dunlevy, of Lebanon, an entire 

 absence of such hillocks; whence he concludes, the present forest is iu 

 the vigor of its first growth, and argues the comparatively recent 

 abandonment of the w'ork — say, a thousand years ago. I ventured to 

 question the correctness of this statement when it appeared, as con- 

 trary to my own recollection of observations made years ago. From a 

 recent and careful examination of the ground, with this j)oint in mind, 

 I am able to state, both upon my own investigation and the testimony 

 of old residents who have been familiar with the locality from boy- 

 hood, that such hillocks are now and have always been observed 

 within the fort and upon the walls, just as they exist in the oldest 

 forests of the country; and, further, that the growth and general 

 appearance of the forest upon the fortified terrace is identical with , 

 that of the surrounding country. The presence of poplar trees, 



