TWENTY-THIBD ANNUAL MEETING. 93 



several parts of the State. The garden beds are of various sizes, covering generally 

 from twenty to one hundred acres. As a general fact they exist in the richest soil 

 as it is found in the prairies and burr-oak plains. In the latter case, trees of the 

 largest kind are scattered over them." 



This last statement is sufficient to dispel the thought of attributing such to the 

 early white settlers. Upon the whole, Mr. Lapham's statements reflect in a clear 

 light the Mound-Builder's view of the value of systematic cultivation of the soil. 



(4) The third cause that led to the civilization of this people was a seeking to 

 gratify a desire for physical prowess and skill. 



As in the neighborhood of the lakes it was largely a mining, manufacturing, and 

 agricultural State, so we iind the center of a great military State in Ohio and Indiana. 



Nadailac, in his "Prehistoric America," says that "besides 250 fortifications in 

 New York, there have been discovered 10,000 mounds in Ohio, of which 1,500 were 

 military defenses. The importance and greatness of thawork is a proof of an organ- 

 ized system of labor, of an organized community, and a powerful hierarchy." 



The "Prehistoric Times" states that these mounds "indicate a population both 

 large and stationary" ; and according to Mr. Davis "there was not in the sixteenth 

 century a single tribe of Indians (north of the semi-civilized nations) between the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific which had means of subsistence sufficient to enable them to 

 apply, for such purposes, the unproductive labor necessary for the work; nor was 

 there any in such a social state as to compel the labor of the people to be thus ap- 

 plied." 



This leaves us to infer that there was a stability in their social organization 

 equal to that found among other civilized nations of that time. 



Squier states that " he has reasons to believe that there was a line of fortifications 

 and signal stations extending from the Susquehanna in New York to the source of 

 the Alleghany, and thence diagonally across Ohio and Indiana to the Wabash river;" 

 also that "there was a line. along the Big Harpeth river, in Tennessee." 



The object of such military lines of defense was doubtless to serve as a protec- 

 tion against the early Indian invaders who came down from the North. 



General Harrison, in speaking to the Historical Society of Ohio, said that the 

 mounds which he had examined in that State "have a military character stamped 

 upon them which cannot be mistaken." 



I here give a few facts concerning one of the most interesting that I have ex- 

 amined. 



Fort Ancient, Ohio, is situated on the left bank of the Little Miami, forty-two 

 miles above Cincinnati. It is an irregularly-shaped artificial mound, 230 feet high, 

 and contains some 628,000 cubic yards of earth. The summit is truncated, and 

 bounded by an inclosing ridge four miles in length, some twenty feet high at ac- 

 cessible points, and from four to five feet high where the side of the mound is pre- 

 cipitous. 



This, with hundreds of others, was garrisoned by thousands of the bravest of the 

 empire, who with bows and arrows, bolas and boulders, withstood the shock of the 

 oncoming savage, till, swept before the tornado, they left burning their signal-fires, 

 their relics and monuments, as foot-prints in the path of civilization. 



As proof that they sought to become skilled in their various vocations, they at 

 first used rough stones as implements, and afterwards gratified their inventive and 

 artistic tastes by polishing and sharpening them. The celt, to be useful in dressing 

 skins, they sharpened at one end; they sharpened the ax, and made a depression 

 around the pole for the handle. They made their arrow-points according to cer- 

 tain patterns, so they coitld be fastened securely to the shaft, and give a whirling 



