16 A N C T E N T M O N IT M E N T S . 



degree of skill displayed and the amount of labor expended in constructing its 

 artificial defences, challenge our admiration, and excite our surprise. With all 

 the facilities and numerous mechanical appliances of the present day, the construc- 

 tion of a work of this magnitude would be no insignificant undertaking. And when 

 we reflect how comparatively rude, at the best, must have been the means at the 

 command of the people who raised this monument, we are prepared to estimate 

 the value which they placed upon the objects sought in its erection, and also to 

 form some conclusion respecting the number and character of the people themselves. 



It is quite unnecessary to recapitulate the features which give to this the 

 character of a military work ; for they are too obvious to escape attention. The 

 angles of the hill form natural bastions, enfilading the wall. The position of the 

 wall, the structure of the ditch, the peculiarities of the gateways where ascent is 

 practicable, the greater height of the wall where the declivity of the hill is least 

 abrupt, the reservoirs of water, the look-out or citadel, all go to sustain the 

 conclusion. 



The evidence of antiquity afforded by the aspect of the forest, is worthy of 

 more than a passing notice. Actual examination showed the existence of not far 

 from two Jmndred annual rings or layers to the foot, in the large chestnut-tree 

 already mentioned, now standing upon the entrenchments. This would give nearly 

 six hundred years as the age of the tree. If to this we add the probable period 

 intervening from the time of the building of the work to its abandonment, and the 

 subsequent period up to its invasion by the forest, we are led irresistibly to the 

 conclusion, that it has an antiquity of at least one thousand years.* But when we 

 notice, all around us, the crumbling trunks of trees half hidden in the accumulating 

 soil, we are induced to fix upon an antiquity still more remote. 



It is worthy of note, that this work is in a broken country, with no other remains, 

 except perhaps a few small, scattered mounds, in its vicinity. The nearest monu- 

 ments of magnitude are in the Paint creek valley, sixteen miles distant, from which 

 it is separated by elevated ridges. Lower down, on Brush creek, towards its 

 junction with the Ohio, are some works ; but none of importance occur within 

 twelve miles in that direction. 



P I. ATE VI. 



FORTIFIED HILL, BUTLER COUNTV, OHIO. 



This fine work is situated in Butler county, Ohio, on the west side of the Great 

 Miami river, three miles below the town of Hamilton. The plan is from a 



* " One of tlie mounds at Marietta must be more than eight liundred years old ; for Dr. Hildrotli counted 

 eight hundred rings of annual growth in a tree which grew upon it." — LyeWs Travels in North America, 

 vol. ii. p. 2ft. See also Second Geological Report of the State of Ohio. p. 26S, 



