MOUNDS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY, INDIANA. 373 



The earthworJc. — In describing this work I can do no better than to 

 extract from Dr. Kufus Haymond's Report of Franklin Comity, in the 

 Geological Report of Indiana, by E. T. Cox, 1SG9: 



"Three miles north of Brookville, and immediately west of the east 

 fork of White Water River, upon the top of a hill nearly 350 feet high, 

 there is a semicircular wall of earth 300 yards in length. It is built 

 across a narrow ridge, which is formed by two deep ravines, one on the 

 south, the other on the north, which, with the river on the east, isolate 

 the flat on top of the hill (containing 15 or 20 acres) from the level 

 country to the west, and was built probably to protect the inhabitants 

 from any enemy approaching from that direction. The " wall of earth " is 

 at all points low, being in its present condition not more than 3 feet high, 

 but the ditch from which the material was taken is 3 feet deep, and being 

 just outside the embankment makes it more of an obstacle to overcome 

 when defended from the inside. The stump of a tree which had been 

 cut on the embankment showed about two hundred rings, and there 

 were others much larger standing near it. The hill toward the top is so 

 steep that one can scarcely climb up without assisting himself by hold- 

 ing on to shrubs or some support, making this part naturally fortified. 

 This inclosure is undoubtedly a work of defense, the building material 

 being all taken from the outside." 



The dead of prehistoric people in this locality are nearly all found in 

 the small mounds which occupy every prominent point along the valley. 

 We generally find in exploring a mound, near the original surface of 

 the earth, from one to several skeletons very much decayed and not 

 touched by fire. Above and around them are human bones charred and 

 blackened, also charcoal, ashes, &c, and in one case the earth was 

 vitrified, so great had been the heat. The bodies were generally stretched 

 out without reference to points of compass. 



Quarries. — In regard to aboriginal quarries, quite a mistake has crept 

 into our literature on this subject. A great many pieces of worked stone 

 of the striped slate are found in this State and in Ohio. Archaeologists say 

 it was obtained far to the north, in the lake region. This was not always 

 the case, if it ever was. I have seen in a field where a great many un- 

 finished implements were found, ami which to all appearances had been 

 a " workshop," bowlders of this same striped slate, from which large 

 and small pieces had been flaked. Small caches of " flint disks " have 

 been found, one cache containing twelve, another eighty or ninety disks 

 of the leaf shape. 



Several localities in this county have the appearance of having been 

 workshops, the surface being covered all over with Hint chips and spalls 

 of diorite or greenstone and slate; also unfinished pestles, axes, «&o. 



