8ACREDENCL0SURES. 75 



This section is constructed from measurements taken at a point midway between 

 tiie top and base of the grade. Measured between the summits of the banks, the 

 width of the way is two hundred and thirty feet. At the base of the grade, the 

 walls upon the interior are twenty feet high. From this point there is a slight 

 descent, for the distance of several hundred feet, to the bank of the river, which 

 is here thirty-five or forty feet in height. It has been conjectured by some, that 

 the river flowed immediately at the foot of this way at the time of its construction. 

 This is, however, mere conjecture, unsupported by evidence. If admitted, it would 

 give to this monument an antiquity greatly superior to that of the pyramids, unless 

 the deepening of our river channels has been infinitely more rapid in times past, 

 than at present. But one fact favors the conjecture, and that is the entire absence 

 of remains of antiquity upon the beautiful terraces to which tiiis graded passage 

 leads. They may nevertheless have been once as thickly populated as they now 

 are ; and this passage may have been the grand avenue leading to the sacred plain 

 above, through which assemblies and processions passed, in the solemn observ- 

 ances of a mysterious worship. 



To the south of the smaller enclosure is a finely formed truncated mound, (a 

 view of which is given in a subsequent Plate,) thirty feet high, and surrounded by a 

 circular waU, constituting a perfect ellipse, the transverse and conjugate diameters 

 of which are two hundred and thirty feet, and two hundred and fifteen feet 

 respectively.* This beautiful monument is now enclosed in the public cemetery, 

 and is carefully guarded from encroachment. A flight of steps ascends to its 

 summit, on which seats are disposed, and from Avhich a beautiful prospect is 

 commanded.! In the vicinity occur several fragmentary walls, as shown in the map. 



* Such is the result of careful admeasurements made by Dr. John Locke, whose accuracy in matters 

 of this kind, as in all others, is worthy of cmulatiun. 



f A very laudable disposition has been manifested, on the part of the citizens of Marietta, to preserve 

 the interesting remains in their midst. The Directors of the Ohio Land Company, when they took 

 possession of the country at the mouth of the Muskingum, in 1788, adopted immediate measures for the 

 preservation of these monuments. To their credit be it said, one of their earliest official acts was the 

 passage of a resolution, which is entered upon the journal of their proceedings, reserving the two 

 truncated pyramids and the great mound, with a few acres attached to each, as public squares. They 

 placed them under tlie care of tlie future corporation of Marietta, directing that they should be embel- 

 lished with shade trees, when divested of the forest which then covered them, which trees, it was added, 

 should be of nalioe growth, and of the varieties named in the resolution. The great mound with its sur- 

 rounding square was designated as a cemetery, and placed under the control of trustees. Ten years ago, 

 these structures being yet unenclosed and much injured by the rains washing througii the paths caused by 

 the cattle that roamed over them, the citizens raised a sum of money adequate to the purpose, and fully 

 restored them. The magnificent avenue named, not inappropriately, by the Directors, " Sacra Via," or 

 Sacred Way, but now generally known as the " Covered Way," was also preserved by a special resolution 

 of the Company, " never to be disturbed or defaced, as common ground, not to be enclosed." One of the 

 streets of Marietta, Warren street, passes through this avenue. It is, of course, impossible to resist 

 encroachments upon the walls of the enclosures, which are rapidly disappearing. 



Had a similar enlightened policy marked the proceedings of all the early companies and settlers of tlie 

 West, we should not now have occasion to regret the entire obliteration of many interesting remains of 

 antiquity. Or did a similar disposition exist generally, there would be less necessity for a careful, 

 systematic, and immediate survey of our remaining monuments. The works at Chillicothe, Circleville, 



