MOUNDS OF OBSERVATION. jgl 



grained, carbonaceous material similar to that wliicli is sometimes found on the 

 altars, and which has several times been described as resembling burned leaves 

 or straw. It has been suggested that sacrifices or offerings of vegetables or 

 the " first fruits " of the year were sometimes made, of which these traces alone 

 remain. 



In one or two small mounds, deposits of arrow or spear points of flint have been 

 found. The little mound No. 8 in the map, Plate II, contained a pile in its 

 centre of twenty or more, each one broken into two or three pieces. They had not 

 been exposed to the action of fire. In shape they are singular, differing materially 

 from those usually found scattered over the fields, and are exceedingly thin and 

 well wrought. it is fruitless to conjecture why they were thus broken up, or 

 why indeed the simple deposit was made at all. 



A few small mounds have been observed composed entirely of pebbles, of the 

 average size of one's fist, unmixed with earth, excepting what had gradually accumu- 

 lated over them. Several of those surrounding the great work on Paint creek 

 (Plate XXI, No. 2) are of this description, and are supposed, by the residents of 

 the vicinity, to be the missiles of the ancient people, thus conveniently deposited 

 for use in case of an attack upon the supposed fortress ! Unfortunately for this 

 hypothesis, the magazines are outside of the walls. 



It would prove an almost endless and perhaps an entirely unprofitable task to 

 describe the peculiarities of individual mounds, not refei'able to either of the grand 

 classes already noticed. Most of them appear inexplicable ; not more so, however, 

 than did the sacrificial or altar mounds when first noticed, and it is likely that 

 more extended investigations may also serve to explain their purposes. The 

 examples above presented are adduced to show that, while the leading purposes of 

 the mounds (of Ohio at least) have been detected and settled, there is yet much 

 left for future explorations to determine. 



MOUNDS OF OBSERVATION. 



It has already been several times remarked, that the most commanding positions 

 on the hills bordering the valleys of the West, are often crowned with mounds, 

 generally of intermediate, but sometimes of large size, — suggesting at once the 

 purposes to which some of the cairns or hill-mounds of the Celts were applied, 

 namely, that of signal or alarm posts. 



Ranges of these mounds may be observed extending along the valleys for many 

 miles. Between Chillicothe and Columbus, on the eastern border of the Scioto 

 valley, not far from twenty may be selected, so placed in respect to each other, 

 that it is believed, if the country were cleared of forests, signals of fire might be 

 transmitted in a few minutes along the whole line. On a hill opposite Chilli- 

 cothe, nearly six hundred feet in height, the loftiest in the entire region, one of 



