EXPLORATIONS IN TENNESSEE. 381 



t 

 moat, to procure earth to raise the mounds. The vaHey and country 



for thh'ty miles westward and northward is very fertile, and exhibits 

 evidences everywhere of having been densely peopled hy the mound- 

 builders. 



At the falls of Little River, near the Alabama line, on the crest of the 

 fall, are three chambers hewed out of the solid sandstone; and at jS'a- 

 coochee the crest of a conical hill was cut off at about fifty feet, so as to 

 embrace an acre and a half, which on tvv^o sides is quite precipitous, and 

 on the others has a ditch and wall, which was formerly six feet high, 

 inclosing about twenty acres. This was doubtless used by De Soto in 

 the battle he had with the Cherokees in 15-iO, which is proved by the 

 relics which have been found. 



At Macon are stupendous remains, as also in Campbell County, on 

 the Chattahoochee. The Yond Mountain, four thousand feet high, of 

 solid granite, is a cone, crested with trees, but perx)endicular on all sides 

 except one space, which was walled with stone; so was the Stone Moun- 

 tain, which is, without exaggeration, two thousand three hundred and 

 sixty feet high, a cone, and accessible on one side only; this was walled 

 with stone. All defensible mountains in this country were fortified, 

 li'either the Cherokees, Creeks, nor Seminoles had any tradition of this 

 extinct race, which is proved to have been a powerful and despotic na- 

 tion from the extent of their territory and the stupendous character of 

 their fortifications and cemeteries. 



EXPLORATIONS IX TENNESSEE. 

 By E. a. Daytox. 



Knoxville, Tennessee, Ayril 9, 1868. 



I left this place on Saturday last, and reached the house of Wm. 

 Stajjles, in Roane County, on the evening of the same day. I went via 

 Cross's Ford of the Clinch River ; thence via Robertsville. The distance 

 is about twenty-eight to thirty miles. Staples's farm is on the west side 

 of Poplar Creek and on the lino of Anderson County. On Monday I 

 made an examination of the salt well or lick, and the Indian remains 

 spoken of in the newspaper article I sent you. They are located a mile 

 south of west of Staples's house, one-fourth of a mile from Poplar 

 Creek, and on a small branch, in which the water was about three inches 

 deep and four feet wide ; it flows between hills, and a well is at the 

 base of one of the hills which is about one hundred or one hundred and 

 tv/euty-flve feet high. The rock is a clay shale. The well is about five 

 to five and a half feet in diameter, and is full of water to the top, which 

 is about on the same level as the water in the branch. There was little 

 or no wat^r flowing from it. It was possibly a little brackish or sulphur- 

 ish, but very little of either. The well did not appear to be stoned uj}, ])ut 



