76 A N C I E N T M t) N 11 M E NTS. 



Excavations, or '' dug holes," are observable at various points around these 

 works. Near the great mound are several ot" considerable size. Those indicated 

 by m and n in the plan have been regarded and described as wells. Their 

 regularity and former depth are the only reasons adduced in support ot" this 

 belief. The circumstance of regularity is not at all remarkable, and is a common 

 feature in excavations manifestly made for the purpose of procuring material 

 for the construction of mounds, etc. Their present depth is small, though it is 

 represented to have been formerly much greater. There is some reason tor 

 believing that they were dug in order to procure clay for the construction of pot- 

 tery and for other purposes, inasmuch as a very fine variety of that material occurs 

 at this point, some distance below the surface. The surface soil has recently 

 been removed, and the manufacture of bricks commenced. The " clay lining " 

 which has been mentioned as characterizing these " wells," is easiljr accounted 

 for, by the fact that they are sunk in a clay bank ! 



Upon the opposite side of the Muskingum river are bold, precipitous bluffs, 

 several hundred feet in height. Along their brows are a number of small stone 

 mounds. They command an extensive view, and overlook the entire plain upon 

 which the works here described are situated.* 



Such are the principal facts connected with these interesting remains. The 

 generally received opinion respecting them is, that they were erected for defensive 

 purposes. Such was the belief of the late President Harri.son, who visited them 

 in person, and whose opinion, in matters of this kind, is entitled to great weight. 

 The reasons for this belief have never been presented, and they are not very 

 obvious. The number and width of the gateways, the absence of a fosse, as well 

 as the character of the enclosed and accompanying remains, present strong objec- 

 tions to the hypothesis which ascribes to them a warlike origin. And it may here 

 be remarked, that the conjecture that the Muskingum ran at the base of the graded 

 way already described, at the period of its erection, seems to have had its origin 

 in the assumption of a military design in the entire group. Under this hypothesis, 

 it was supposed that the way was designed to cover or secure access to the river, — 

 an object which it would certainly not have required the construction of a passage- 

 way one hundred and fifty feet wide to effect. The elevated squares were never 

 designed for military purposes, — their very regularity of structure forbids the 

 conclusion. They were most likely erected as the sites for structures which have 

 long since passed away, or for the celebration of unknown rites, — corresponding 

 in short, in purpose as they do in form, with those which they so much resemble in 



(Jinciiuiiiti, and St. Louis, might havi^ been preserved with all ease; and uuiiki have constituted striking 

 ornaments to those cities, to say nothing of the interest whieli would attach to them in other points of 

 view. It is proper to observe, that the fads embi-aced in this note were kindly eommunieated bv Dr. S. 

 P. Hii.uuETH, of Marietta. 



* The account of an English adventurer named Axlie, respecting some e.xtraordinary remains winch he 

 professed to have discovered here, it is hardly necessary to say, is entitled to no credit whatever. The 

 remark holds good of similar accounts, by the same hand, of some of the works at Newark, one hundred 

 miles above, on the upper tributaries of the Muskingum. 



