AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 33 



communications were from time to time received, some of which are/inserted in the 

 first volume of the Society's Transactions. 



When peace was restored, and the interior of the country tranquillized,. a lively 

 spirit of inquiry sprang up in the midst of the antiquities to be investigated. Men 

 of intelligence at Lexington, Ky., at Cincinnati, and in other parts of Ohio, resorted 

 to accurate measurements of works in their neighborhood, and to excavations for 

 the purpose of ascertaining the contents of the mounds. Among the most enter- 

 prising of these was Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, Ohio, a village deriving its name 

 from a remarkable aboriginal structure that occupied its site, and which it destroyed. 



At the request of the President of the Antiquarian Society, and assisted by him 

 with pecuniary means, Mr. Atwater undertook to prepare a comprehensive account 

 of the antiquities of the Western States, with plans of the principal earthworks, 

 and drawings of the most characteristic relics. This was published by the Society 

 in 1820, and occupies the greater part of the first volume of " Arch.eologia 

 Americana." 



Thus, a connected and authentic representation of these objects of interest and 

 curiosity was at length accomplished ; and in a manner that, under the circumstances, 

 must be regarded as highly creditable, both to the author, and the institution under 

 whose auspices it was effected. Considering the difficulties that were to be sur- 

 mounted in tracing lines often buried in forests, and otherwise obscured by time, 

 before repeated observations had assisted the judgment, the surveys are more 

 accurate than could reasonably be anticipated. When we take into view the fact 

 that almost every writer on the subject, thus far, had been engaged in determining 

 by what foreign people the mounds and fortifications might have been reared, rather 

 than in seeking in the works themselves to find their true significance and history, 

 the treatise of Mr. Atwater is entitled to the praise of being more than ordinarily 

 practical, and free from visionary tendencies ; while its claims to the general merit of 

 faithful and comprehensive research have not been impaired by later investigations. 



It is not surprising that Mr. Atwater should indulge to some extent in the se- 

 ductive practice of premature speculation, instead of confining himself to a simple 

 exhibition of facts ; but he did not arrange or employ the latter for the support of 

 any peculiar theory or private opinion. If the literary merits of his narrative are 

 not of a high order, he escaped the dangers of an ambitious and imaginative style 

 of description. He was greatly assisted by other gentlemen at the West, whose 

 attention had been directed to particular localities. From many he received draw- 

 ings and useful information acknowledged in his work. Great credit is due to Dr. 

 Daniel Drake, for the sensible account of the antiquities of the Miami country, 

 contained in his "Picture of Cincinnati," published in 1815. 



The "Western Gazetteer," compiled by Samuel R, Brown, in 1817, embraced in 

 its statistics the known antiquities of the States to which it refers ; and in the same 

 year, De Witt Clinton read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New 

 York, his memoir on the antiquities of that State, having previously touched upon 

 the subject of aboriginal remains in a discourse before the Historical Society, in 1811. 



By these publications, and others of a more limited and incidental nature, near 

 the same period, the preparation of Mr. Atwater's summary was doubtless facilitated. 



