Observations Conccruing Fort Ancient. i2i 



serious aspect, and it was thought necessary to fortify by 

 building a Chinese wall (?) around the town. Not, perhaps, to 

 protect simply the town itself, but to afford a place of refuge 

 for the inhabitants of the surrounding country in times of 

 great peril. But why do we associate the investing line 

 of embankments at Fort Ancient with a defensive work of 

 the Orientals by calling it a Chinese wall? The answer to 

 this question, we trust, will be found in the following brief 

 remarks : 



We shall not be much at variance with eminent authority 

 on archaeology by saying that there are strong grounds for the 

 belief that in very early times there appeared in the great 

 Mississippi Valley, as occupants of the country, people repre- 

 senting the two leading branches of the great Mongolian 

 family of Eastern Asia. There were the wild North American 

 Indians, who came from the old Chinese Tartars, and who, it 

 is to be presumed, found their way into the New World by the 

 way of Behring Straits. The other adventurers were a less 

 barbarous people, and came from the more enlightened 

 Chinese. At a time long ago, they drifted from their home in 

 the Ea.st across the Pacific into Central America, or Yucatan, 

 and finally, by the extension of their civilization northw^ard, 

 reached the Mississippi Valley. 



We know something of the hostilities that existed in the 

 East between these Mongolian branches, and that it was 

 thought necessary on the part of the more civilized people to 

 build a great wall 1,200 miles in length, as a defense against 

 their wild and ferocious brethren. 



Here in the Mississippi Valley, by the same Mongolian 

 blood, was engendered a similar strife for supremacy ; and 

 defensive works, such as we see at Fort Ancient, were 

 ultimately constructed by the more civilized party to the 

 warfare. But the results of fortifying, it would seem, were 

 not as successful as in the case of the Celestials in the East. 



There is, we think, unmistakable evidence that the large 

 earth-works constructed on sites strongly fortified l)y nature, 

 such as we see at Fort Ancient, mark the beginning of the 

 end of the old Mound Builder civilization, at least so far as 

 regards the Ohio \'alley. The last permanent occupants, and 

 perhaps the builders of the fort, were, most likely, the people 



