Survey and Measurements 87 



made. The change of the stream's course (west side of the enclosure) 

 is interesting and quite unusual in Indian works. 



Although manifestly a work of defence, yet I cannot understand 

 how the Hopewell group could have been used as such. The north 

 section of the wall mounts from the second to the third terrace some 

 thirty-five or forty feet in height. The wall is low. The ground a 

 hundred feet north (or back) from the wall commands a plain view of 

 the mounds and village site below. An arrow could be shot from this 

 tableland as far as Mound 18. Dr. Holmes, Dr. Wilson, and other 

 visitors to our camp, could not understand how the works afforded any 

 protection whatever to the inhabitants. The range of high ground to the 

 north, commanding the entire area below, was at least a quarter of a 

 mile in length. The wall, except in the woods, does not appear to have 

 ever been very strong, and even if it was surrounded by palisades, I 

 am of the opinion that a party of warriors could break through at any 

 desired point. A heavy fire from this commanding position would 

 drive the inhabitants as far south as a line drawn between Mounds 16 

 and 18. Part of the besieging force could continue such a fire, while 

 others made a breach in the walls or oalisades. and, entering, deploy 

 along the base of the terrace. They would have a great advantage over 

 the inhabitants, being then upon the same level with them, and protected 

 by a fire from their friends on the higher land above. 



This peculiarity is observed in other Indian works. We should not 

 always judge these people's works from our point of view as to proper 

 defensive works. Much that they did seems inconsistent to us; yet 

 there may have been protective features of which we are not aware. 

 I merely offer opinions based on a residence and study of several months. 



The forest cutting and draining of land everywhere in southern 

 Ohio has unquestionably affected the water flow. There are heavy 

 freshets and floods in the spring, low water in the summer. The springs 

 mentioned by Squier and Davis do not flow strongly to-day. In fact, 

 save the one in the northeast corner, where our tents were pitched, 

 all the others have nearly dried up. 



The distance from the southern edge of the group to the North 

 Fork of Paint Creek is about a third of a mile, being a little farther 

 than indicated by Squier and Davis upon their map. 



The central, and, of course, the most interesting feature of the 

 entire work, is Mound 25, formerly known as the Effigy. It is shown 

 by Atwater, as well as by Squier and Davis, as a union of three mounds; 

 four other mounds were situated just south of it, and they are all 

 surrounded by a semicircular enclosure. The circle and the square 



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