640 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



One especially noted as containing a great quantity of broken shells 

 and pottery existed on the high land between Laurel run and the 

 Toughiogheny River, on a tract formerly owned by Judge Young, and 

 remains of the fort are to be seen. There are yet distinct traces of one 

 on land of General Henry W. Beeson, formerly Colonel McCleau's, about 

 miles east of Uniontown. 



There was one northeast of New Geneva, at the locality known as the 

 "Flint Hill," on land now owned by John Franks. 



Two miles northeast of New Geneva, on the road to Uniontown, and 

 on land late of William Morris, now Nicholas B. Johnson, was one cele- 

 brated for its great abundance of mussel-shells. In the high ridge south- 

 wardly of the headwaters of Middle Eun several existed, of which may 

 be named one on the Bixler land, one on the high knob eastwardly of 

 Clark Breading's, one on the Alexander Wilson tract, and one on the 

 land of Dennis Eiley, deceased, formerly Andrew C. Johnson's. Judge 

 Veech also states that "a very noted 'old fort' and of most command- 

 ing location was at Brownsville, on the site of Fort Burd, but covering 

 a much larger area. Even after Colonel Burd built his fort here, in 1750, 

 it retained the name of the ' Old Fort,' Redstone Old Fort, or Fort Red- 

 stone.^^ I am quite sure that Judge Veech is in error in locating this 

 old fort on the site of Fort Burd. 



Of the antiquities immediately around Brownsville no trace at pres- 

 ent remains. On the original draught of Fort Burd, made by Major 

 Joseph Shippen in 1759, and now in the possession of the Historical 

 Society of Pennsylvania, can be seen, immediately to the rear of Fort 

 Burd, the old Indian Fort, which is now so entirely obliterated that 

 very few remember where it was located. The fullest description of 

 this earthwork is found in " Travels in America, performed in 180G, for 

 the purpose of exploring the rivers Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio, and 

 Mississippi, &c., by Thomas Ashe, esq., London, 1808." In the fifth let- 

 ter of this work the author says : 



'' The neighborhood of Brownsville or Redstone abounds with 

 monuments of Indian antiquity. They consist of fortified camps, bar- 

 rows for the dead, images and utensDs, military appointments, «&c. A 

 fortified camp (which is a fortification of a very complete nature, on 

 whose ramparts timbers of 5 feet in diameter now grows) commands 

 the town of Brownsville, which undoubtedly was once an Indian settle- 

 ment. This camp contains about 13 acres, inclosed in a circle, the ele- 

 vation of which is 7 feet above the adjoining ground. Within the circle 

 a pentagon is accurately described, having its sides 4 feet high and its 

 angles uniformly 3 feet from the circumference of the circle, thus leav- 

 ing an unbroken communication all round. Each side of the pentagon 

 has a postern opening into the passage between it and the circle, but 

 the circle itself has only one grand gateway, which directly faces the 

 town. Exactly in the center stands a mound, about 30 feet high, 

 hitherto considered as a repository for the dead, and which any correct 

 observer can perceive to have been a lookout. I confess that I examine*! 



