ANCIENT INDIAN REMAINS. 27] 



ANCIENT INDIAN EEMAINS, NEAR PRESCOTT, C. W. 



BY W. E. GUEST. 



One of the oft reiterated assertions of foreigners on visiting our 

 country as they pass rapidly from the Atlantic to the lakes, and from 

 the lakes to where the "Father of Waters rolls his flood," is that "the 

 country is too new ; that it has no ancient time-marked monuments, 

 no ivy-rohed ruins with gray turrets pointing to the distant past, or 

 storied urns rich with the records of human greatness to serve as models 

 for the present." 



A greater error, perhaps, was never committed. Hundreds, aye 

 thousands of years before the white man's foot had pressed the soil of 

 the New World, there lived and flourished a race of men who called 

 this continent their home. Had they a written history, what deeds 

 of chivalry might we not peruse; what tales of forest " Agamem- 

 nons " and unknown "kings of men" Alas! for their glory^ their 

 ardor, and frheir pride ! 



"They have all passed away, 



That noble race and brave, 

 Their light canoes have vanished • 



From oft the crested wave. 



Tlieir name is on your waters, 

 You may not wash it out ! " 



Many are the traces of their existence that lie widely scattered 

 over the surface of the country, such as burial grounds, places of sacri- 

 fice or defence, and earthern mounds of various shapes and sizes ; the 

 latter class being so numerous that as many as two hundred and fifty 

 have been examined and surveyed in the State of New York alone. All 

 these interesting relics, however, like the remnant of the race to which 

 they belong, are fast disappearing before the progress of civilization, 

 and will probably in time be entirely obliterated ; a fact calling for 

 energetic exploration and earnest investigation while yet the oppor- 

 tunity is offered. 



Having been informed of the existence of some ancient Indian works 

 in the vicinity of Prescott, C. W., I made a visit to one of great in- 

 terest on July 17, 1854. The work in question is situated in the town- 

 ship of Augusta, about eight miles and a half northwest of Prescott, 

 on a farm occupied by Mr. Tarp. Jas. Keeler, esq., who resides within 

 a mile of the works, accompanied me, and to him I am indebted for 

 much valuable information not only respecting this locality, but also 

 of a similar work in the town of Edvvardsburgh, near Spencerville, 

 about one mile and a half in a northerly direction. 



This ancient work in Augusta is about eighty rods in length, its 

 greatest width twenty rods. The westerly part has a half moon em- 

 bankment, extending some ten rods across a neck of land, terminating 



