W R K S O F D E F E N C E . 23 



PLATE VIII. No. 3. 



The enclosure here represented is situated on the left bank of the Great Miami 

 river, two and a half miles above the town of Piqua, Miami county, Ohio, upon 

 the farm of Col. John Johnston, a prominent actor in the early history of Ohio. 

 It occupies the third terrace, which here forms a bluft" peninsula, bounded on three 

 sides by streams. The banks of the terrace vary from fifty to seventy-five feet 

 in height. The embankment is carried along the boundaries of the peninsula, 

 enclosing an oval-shaped area of about eighteen acres. It is composed of earth 

 intermixed with large quantities of stone, and is unaccompanied by a ditch. The 

 stones that enter into the composition of the rampart are water-worn, and must 

 have been brought from the bed of the river ; which, according to Dr. Drake, for 

 two miles opposite this work, does not at present afford a stone of ten pounds 

 weight. A mound, five feet high and surrounded by a ditch, occurs within the work. 

 There is also another, exterior to the walls, upon the second terrace, towards 

 the river. This is classed as a defensive work, for very obvious reasons.* 



Below this entrenchment, and on the present site of the town of Piqua, a group 

 of works formerly existed, consisting of circles, ellipses, etc. These have been 

 described at length, by Major Long.f There are also various small works on the 

 opposite bank of the Miami. Indeed, the whole valley is here covered with traces 

 of a former dense population. 



PLATE VIII. No. 44 



This work resembles one already described. No. 2 of this Plato. It is situated 

 on the bank of the Great Miami river, three miles below Dayton, Montgomery 

 county, Ohio. The side of the hill towards the river is very steep, rising to the 



* Dr. Drake, in the chapter on antiquities, in his " View of Ciuciimati," has the following notice of 

 this work : 



"The adjacent hill, at the distance of half a mile, and at the greater elevation of about one hundred 

 feet, is the site of a stone wall, mainly circular, and enclosing perhaps twenty acres. The valley of the 

 river on one side, and a deep ravuie on the other, render access to three-fourths of this fortification 

 extremely difficult. The wall is carried generally along the brow of the hill, in one place descending a 

 short distance, so as to include a spring. The silicious limestone of -which it was built, must have been 

 transported from the bed of the river, which, for two miles opposite these works, does not at present 

 afford one of ten pounds weight. They exhibit no marks of the hammer or any other tool. The wall 

 was laid up without mortar, and is now in ruins." 



f Long's Second Expedition, vol. i. pp. 54 — 60. 



I Surveyed by James McBride, Esq. and Samuel Forrek, Esq. of the Ohio Board of Public Works. 



