PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES CONNECTED WITH FISHING 199 



vegetation and tall forest-trees which at one time crowned it on every side, the 

 outlines of this mound stand in bold relief. Its angles are still sharply defined. 

 The established approach to the top is from the east. Its ascent was accomplished 

 through the intervention of terraces, rising one above the other — inclined planes 

 leading from the one to the other. These terraces are sixty-five feet in width, 

 and extend from the mound toward the southeast. JNTear the eastern anale a 

 pathway leads to the top ; but it does not appear to have been intended for very 

 general use. May it not have been designed for the priesthood alone, while, 

 assembled upon the broad terraces, the worshipers gave solemn heed to the 

 religious ceremonies performed upon the eastern summit of this ancient temple? 



" East of this large central mound — and so near that their flanks meet and 

 mingle — stands a smaller mound about thirty-five feet high, originally quadran- 

 gular, now nearly circular in form, and with a summit diameter of one hundred 

 feet. From its western slope is an easy and immediate communication with the 

 terraces of the central tumulus. This mound is designated in the plan by the 

 letter B. Two hundred and fifty feet in a westerly direction from this mound, 

 and distant some sixty feet in a southerly direction from the central mound, is 

 the third (C) and last of this immediate gToup. Pentagonal in form, it possesses 

 an altitude of twenty-three feet. It is uniformly level at the top. 



" East of this group, and within the enclosure, is a chain of four sepulchral 

 mounds [F F FF), ovoidal in shape. Little individual interest attaches to them. 

 Nothing, aside from their location in the vicinity of those larger tumuli and 

 their being within the area formed by the canal and the river, distinguishes them 

 fi'om numerous earth-mounds scattered here and there throughout the length 

 and breadth of the Etowah and Oostenaula Valleys. 



" The artificial elevation E, lying northwest of the central group, is remark- 

 able for its superficial area, and is completely surrounded by the moat which, at 

 that point, divides with a view to its enclosure. The slope of the sides of these 

 tumuli is just such as would be assumed by gradual accretions of earth succes- 

 sively deposited in small quantities from above." 



Having expressed, in the next paragraph, his opinion that the central mound 

 served as a temple of the sun. Colonel Jones continues : — 



" In the true relation- of the vicissitudes which attended the Governor Don 

 Hernando de Soto, and some nobles of Portugal in the discovery of the Province 

 of Florida, we are informed by the Gentleman of Elvas that ' on Wednesday, 

 the nineteenth day of June, the Governor entered Pacaha, and took quarters in 

 the town where the Cacique was accustomed to reside. It was enclosed, and very 

 large. In the towers and the palisade were many loopholes. There was much 

 dry maize, and the new was in great quantity throughout the fields. At the 

 distance of half a league to a league off were large towns, all of them surrounded 



