Clark's Work. North Fork of Paint Creek 85 



supply of water, inasmuch as it is very evident that many centuries 

 have not elapsed since the creek, now 100 rods distant, washed the 

 base of the terrace upon which it stands. Indeed, until recently, and 

 until prevented by dykes above, the creek at its highest stages continued 

 to send a portion of its waters along its ancient channel. 



The slight wall along the terrace bank is composed chiefly of smooth, 

 water-worn stones, taken from the creek, and cemented together by 

 tough, clayey earth. The wall of the square is wholly of clay, and its 

 outlines may be easily traced by the eye, from a distance, by its color. 

 It appears, as do the embankments of many other works, to have 

 been slightly burned. This appearance is so marked as to induce 

 some persons to suppose that the walls were, in certain instances, 

 originally composed of bricks partially baked, but which have in 

 process of time lost their form, and subsided into a homogeneous 

 mass. That they have in some cases been subjected to the action of 

 fire, is too obvious to admit of doubt. At one point in the lower wall 

 of the square, stones and large masses of pebbles and earth, much 

 burned, and resembling a ferruginous conglomerate, are turned up 

 by the plough. May not this feature be accounted for by supposing 

 the walls to have been originally surmounted by palisades, which were 

 destroyed by the action of fire? Such a cause, however, seems hardly 

 adequate to produce so striking results. 



The broken tableland upon which the main work extends forms 

 natural bastions at the north, which have gateways opening to them. 

 At a certain point in the enbankment, a quantity of calcined human 

 bones are observable. 



Such are some of the features of this interesting work; and if their 

 detail has been tedious, it may be urged in extenuation of such minute- 

 ness, that descriptions have hitherto been quite too vague and general. 

 Minute circumstances are often of the first importance in arriving at 

 correct conclusions. The comparative slightness of the wall and the 

 absence of a ditch, at the points possessing natural defences — the 

 extension of the artificial defences upon the tablelands overlooking 

 and commanding the terrace, — the facilities afforded for an abundant 

 supply of water, as well as the large area enclosed, with its mysterious 

 circles and sacred mounds, — all go to sustain the conclusion that this 

 was a fortified town or city of the ancient people. The history of its 

 fall, if its strange monuments could speak, would perhaps tell of heroic 

 defence of homes and altars and of daring achievements in siege and 

 assault. 



The amount of labor expended in the construction of this work, 



