ABORIGINAL STEUCTUEES IN GEOEGIA. 285 



The tetragon terraces had lost their distinctive outlines, and were little 

 more than gentle elevations; their surfaces littered with sherds of pot- 

 tery and flint chips, and occasionally with fragments of human bones. 

 Freshets had sadly marred the level of the adjacent space. Overleaping 

 the river bank, the turbid waters had carved deep pathways in the sur- 

 face of the valley on both sides of the " great mount." There it re- 

 mained, however, wholly unaffected by these unusual currents. It had 

 evidently suffered no perceptible diminution in its recorded dimensions. 

 The Savannah Eiver still pursued its long-established channel, but " the 

 four niches or sentry-boxes," if they formerly existed, were entirely gone, 

 and of "the spiral path or track leading from the ground up to the top " 

 we could discover no trace. On the south a roadway, about 15 feet 

 wide and commencing at a point some distance from the base of the 

 mound, leads with a regular grade to the top. This manifestly fur- 

 nished the customary means of ascent, as the sides are too precipitous 

 for convenient climbing. This feature seems to have escaped Mr. Bar- 

 tram's observation. 



Not having been cultivated for many years, the apex and sides of this 

 truncated cone are now clothed in a luxuriant growth of trees and 

 swamp cane. Attired in such attractive garb, this tumulus forms a 

 marked object in the profile of the valley from which it springs. Proofs 

 of long-continued occupancy, by the aborigines, of the adjacent territory 

 are abundant. Ancient burial-places, the sites of old villages, traces 

 of open-air work-shops for the manufacture of implements of jasper, 

 quartz, chert, greenstone, and soapstone, refuse piles, and abandoned 

 fishing resorts, are by no means infrequent along both banks of the Sa- 

 vannah River for many miles. Upon the advent of the European the 

 circumjacent valley was found cleared and in cultivation by the red 

 men, who here had fixed abodes and were associated in considerable 

 numbers. The Southern tribes, in the sixteenth century, subsisted 

 largely upon maize, beans, pumpkins, and melons. These they planted, 

 tended, and harvested regularly. Of their agricultural labors at the 

 dawn of the historic period we have full accounts. 



So vast are the proportions of this largest mound that we are per- 

 suaded it rises beyond the dignity of an artificial place of retreat, eleva- 

 tion for chieftain-lodge, or mound of observation. 



It appears entirely probable that it was a temple mound, built for sun- 

 worship, and that it forms one of a well-ascertained series of similar 

 structures still extant within the limits of the Southern States. These 

 Florida tribes, as they were called in the days of De Soto, worshiped the 

 sun and were frequently engaged in the labor of mound-building. Over 

 them ruled kings who exercised powers well-nigh despotic. Often were 

 the concentrated labors of the nation directed to the accomplishment of 

 allotted tasks. Hence, within the territory occupied by these people, 

 we find many traces of early constructive skill of unusual magnitude. 



The material employed in erecting this large tumulus differs from the 

 soil of the surrounding bottom. It is a dark-colored, tenacious clay, 



