54 A N C 1 E N T MONUMENTS. 



regular terrace embraced in the walls, are features hardly consistent with the 

 hypothesis of a military origin. The long parallel lines, found in connection with 

 this and other works, are entirely inexplicable in their design and purposes. The 

 most })lausible suggestion concerning them is, that they were devoted to the 

 celebration of certain games ; they may, however, have been connected with 

 religious observances. It has been suggested that the gully or " wash " towards 

 the river was originally a graded way to the water, and that its pi'esent irregularity 

 has been occasioned by the rains and storms of centuries. 



Tt is a singular fact that there are no mounds of magnitude in connection with 

 these works. Upon the opposite side of the river, however, there are a large 

 number, as will be seen in the succeeding Plate. 



PLATE XIX.* 



iVlOUND CITY, ROSS COUNTY, OIIIO. 



Tins Plate presents a very interesting group of works. They are situated on 

 the left bank of the Scioto river, four miles north of the town of Chillicothe. 

 The enclosure, designated, from the great number of mounds within its walls, 

 '■'■Mound City,'''' is in many respects the most remarkable in the Scioto valley. 

 Through the generous kindness of Henry Siiriver, Esq., upon whose estate it is 

 situated, the mounds were all permitted to be investigated ; and the work will, in 

 consequence, be often referred to in the course of this volume, particularly when 

 we come to speak of " Mounds." 



In outhne it is nearly square, with rounded angles, and consists of a simple 

 embankment, between three and four feet high, unaccompanied by a ditch. Its 

 site is the beautiful level of the second terrace, and it is still covered with the 

 primitive forest. 



The first and most striking feature in connection with this work is the unusual 

 number of mounds which it contains. There are no less than twentij-foiir within 

 its walls. All of these, as above observed, have been excavated, and the principal 

 ones found to contain altars and other remains, which put it beyond question that 

 they were places of sacrifice, or of superstitious origin. [The evidence in support 

 of this conclusion will appear in a subsequent chapter on the mounds and their 

 pur[)oses.] 



These mounds seem placed generally without design in respect to each other, 

 although there is a manifest dependence between those composing the central 

 group, and between those numbered 4 and 5, and 12 and 1.3. From the principal 



'■ These works nif maiki'd V. ami V v s|ii >liv]y. in Mn|\ Pint" TT 



