MOUNDS OF THE UNITED STATES BUSHNELL. 669 



prehistoric earthworks in America. The great circles, squares, octa- 

 gons, the long embankments, and many of strange design may be 

 considered the most marvelous earthworks constructed by ancient 

 man, and it is difficult to realize that an American tribe possessed 

 the skill and ingenuity exhibited in their construction. But it is 

 evident that the builders were a sedentary people who cultivated 

 large gardens in the vicinity of their villages, and they must have 

 been comparatively numerous with well-established customs and 

 beliefs, as indicated by the repetition of several highly developed 

 types of works as units of many groups. 



The magnitude of some groups is surprising. The works at New- 

 ark, Licking County, covered an area of about 2 square miles and 

 consisted of two distinct divisions connected by long, parallel walls. 

 Fortunately the large circle (diameter 1,189 feet), one of the im- 

 l^ortant units of the group, has been preserved and is one of the most 

 interesting prehistoric works in the country. (PL 2.) The group 

 at Portsmouth, on the banks of the Ohio at the mouth of the Scioto, 

 was originally far more extended than that at Newark and was of 

 special interest, as the long lines of parallel embankments were con- 

 tinued on the opposite bank of the Ohio where they terminated in 

 a circular work of great size. 



These strange works are numerous northward from Portsmouth, 

 up the valley of the Scioto, and along the courses of the smaller 

 tributary streams, and were it possible to solve the mysterj^ of their 

 origin and the meaning of their curious designs it would add a fasci- 

 nating chapter to the early history of the Ohio Valley. 



Many small clusters and many isolated works stood in the valley 

 of Paint Creek, a small stream flowing from the west and entering 

 the Scioto just below Chillicothe. (PI. 3.) Here were burial mounds 

 and fortified camps and perfectly formed groups of the combined 

 squares and circles, designs so often repeated but the meaning of which 

 is not known. A short distance north of Chillicothe, on the right bank 

 of the Scioto, was that most interesting inclosure to which the name 

 Mound City was applied. Of the 24 mounds standing within the 

 walls, some were quite large, one rising IT feet above the plain 

 and having a diameter of 100 feet. A great number of stone pipes 

 carved to represent birds and animals were recovered from the 

 smaller mound near the southwest corner of the inclosure. 



Works of such unusual forms and of such magnitude attracted the 

 attention of the early travelers, who readily recognized them as 

 being very different from any remains then standing in the older 

 settled parts of the country. Pioneers often reared their cabins on 

 the sites of the ancient villages. The first group to be described 

 was that discovered on the left bank of the Muskingum, at its junc- 

 tion with the Ohio, the site of the present Marietta. The account 



