EARTHWORKS — T H E iM O U N U S . 



141 



examined with special reference to this point, exhibited no works of magnitude in 

 the form of enclosures ; yet there was an abundance of mounds, though chiefly of 

 small dimensions. Occasional groups of fifteen or twenty were noticed, sometimes 

 occurring in lines, as if placed with design ; a circumstance easily accounted for 

 by the nature of the ground, which is here broken into long, low swells, or narrow 

 ridges, with marshy intervals between them, — the mounds occupying the smnmits 

 of the ridges. 



On the tops of the hills, and on the jutting points of the table lands bordering 

 the valleys in which the earthworks are found, mounds occur in considerable 



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Flo. 28. — HILL MOUNU.S. 



numbers. The most elevated and commanding positions are frequently crowned 

 with them, suggesting at once the purposes to which some of the mounds or cnlrns 

 of the ancient Celts were applied, that of signal or alarm posts. It is not unusual 

 to rind detached mounds among the hills back from the valleys and in secluded 

 places, with no other monuments near. The hunter often encounters them in the 

 depths of the forests, when least expected ; perhaps overlooking some waterfall, or 

 placed in some narrow valley where the foot of man seldom enters. 



Tims nmch respecting the mounds could not escape observation, and has long 

 been known ; but beyond this our information has been extremely limited. And 

 though partial excavations have been made at various times by difterent individuals, 

 still nothing like a systematic exploration, sufficiently thorough and extensive to 

 warrant any conclusion respecting them, has hitherto been attempted. The few 

 detached observations which have met the ligiit have been too vague, and in many 

 cases too poorly authenticated, to enable the inquirer to make any satisfactory 

 deductions from them. 



The popular opinion, however, based in a great degree upon the well ascertained 

 pm-poses of the barrows and tumuii occurring in certain parts of Europe and Asia, 

 is that they are simple monuments, marking the last resting-place ol" some "reat 



