122 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



" Sometimes the square, instead of being open at the ends, as shown in the 

 plan, is closed upon all sides by the banks. In the lately built or new Creek 

 towns, they do not raise a mound for the foundation of their rotundas or public 

 squares. The yard, however, is retained, and the pubhc buildings occupy nearly 

 the same position in respect to it. They also retain the central obelisk and the 

 slave posts. 



" In the Cherokee country, all over Carolina and the northern and eastern parts 

 of Georgia, wherever the ruins of ancient Indian towns appear, we see always, 

 besides these rmiains, one vast, conical, pointed mound. To mounds of this kind 

 I refer, when I speak oi pyramidal mounds. To the south and west of the Altamaha, 

 I observed none of these, in any part of the Muscogulge country, but always flat 

 circular or square structures. The vast mounds upon the St. John's, Alachua, 

 and Musquito rivers, differ from those among the Cherokees, with respect to their 

 adjuncts and appendages, particularly in respect to the great highway or avenue, 

 sunk below the common level of the earth, extending from them, and terminating 

 either in a vast savannah or natural plain, or an artificial pond or lake. A remark- 

 able example occurs at Mount Royal, from whence opens a glorious view of Lake 

 George and its environs. 



^^^3j^^^^ " Fig. 24 exhibits a view of the great mound 



'r " -fe_^^ last referred to. Fig. 25 is a plan of the same 

 structure with its accompanying avenue, which 

 leads oft' to an artificial lake or pond, on the verge 

 of an expansive savannah or natural meadow. 

 A, the mound, about forty feet in perpendicular 

 height ; B, the highway leading from the mound 

 in a straight line to the pond C, about half a mile 

 distant. What may have been the motive for 

 ^ ^ making this pond I cannot conjecture, since the 



S^^SeS::iS:S^^^^^ mound and other vestiges of the ancient town 

 f'o 94. j,j.g situated close on the banks of the river St. 



Juan.* It could not therefore be for the ,^-.^ ^«^' 



conveniency of water. Perhaps they raised ' ^^^M m^rm - . . i, 



the mound with the earth taken out of the ^^^===== . ,■ -^.::^-^^^ 



pond. The sketch of this mound also f"'" ^ 



illustrates the character of the mounds in the Cherokee country ; but the last have 



not the highway or avenue, and are always accompanied by vast square terraces 



* The remains here described are referred to in Bartram's publislied travels, as follows: " Tliey are 

 situated upon an eminence, near the banks of the lake, and command an extensive and charming prospect 

 of the waters, islands, east and west shores of the lake, the capes, tlie hav, and Mount Ro3'a] ; and to the 

 south the view is in like manner infinite, where the skies and waters seem to unite. On tlie site of this 

 ancient town stands a very pompous Indian mount, or conical pyramid of eartli, from which runs in a 

 straight line a grand avenue or Indian highway, through a magnificent grove of magnolias, live oaks, 

 palms, and orange trees, terminating at the verge of a large, green, level savannah," — Trnveln. p. 101. 



