42 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Ave find the field of research gradually extending its limits, and the results of 

 investigation discussed in various connections. 



In 1819, Professor Silliman, of Yale College, established his " American Journal 

 of Science," which, associated with geological and other scientific observations, 

 contains many interesting notices of antiquarian discoveries. The first volume 

 has ah account of remarkable remains on the Etowee (or Hightower) river, in 

 Georgia, by Rev. Elias Cornelius, afterwards a distinguished clergyman of Massa- 

 chusetts ; and another of mounds in East Tennessee, by Mr. John H. Kain, of 

 Knoxville. 



The same year, David Thomas printed his " Travels through the Western Country, 

 in the Summer of 1816," with notices of antiquities, and a dissertation of more than 

 twenty pages on the ancient inhabitants of the United States. 



In 1820, Sir Gilbert Blane, Bart., communicated to the "London Quarterly Journal 

 of Science and Arts," a letter addressed to Dr. Mitchell, on the antiquities of New 

 York. 



Nuttali's "Journal of a Tour in Arkansas," appeared in 1821; and in 1822, 

 Jacob B. Moore, Esq., of New Hampshire, made known to the Antiquarian Society 

 the very interesting and important fact of the former existence in that State of an 

 extensive fortification in Sanbornton, near Lake Winnipisiogee. It was represented 

 as a double inclosure, perfectly symmetrical in form, having mounds at the entrances, 

 and a large one without the walls, in the manner so common at the West. The 

 walls were of stone externally, filled in with clay, shells, and gravel ; and, when 

 first discovered, about eighty years before, were breast high, and six feet in thickness, 

 and had evidently diminished considerably in height since their erection. 1 Unless 

 certain traces of regular embankments on the Merrimack, near Concord, also men- 

 tioned by Mr. Moore, are to be excepted, this is believed to be the only instance, 

 east of New York, of an inclosure like those so common beyond the Alleghanies. 



During a few succeeding years, we are not aware that the archseology of the 

 United States was advanced or elucidated by the development of new features, or 

 the conception of new hypotheses deserving consideration. Mr. Atwater's Memoir 

 was received with much favor, and read with great interest both at home and abroad. 

 The celebrated Dr. Adam Clark wrote to Mr. Duponceau, expressing the delight 

 and instruction with which he perused it. After referring to the mounds, forts, and 

 gigantic rings or stone circles of Ireland, as not unlike those on the Ohio, and as 

 little understood, but which, with certain customs and habits of the Irish, he supposes 

 to be of Asiatic derivation, he declares himself particularly struck with what in the 

 memoir is called the " Triune Vessel," as telling a more direct tale of Asiatic origin 

 than anything else in the volume. 2 



In local histories, gazetteers, &c, the subject was sometimes discussed at con- 

 siderable length, and with occasional additions to the list of remains. Thus, Beck's 

 "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," published in 1823, Yates and Moulton's 



1 Belknap, Hist, of New Hampshire, III, 89, speaks of "the appearance of a fortress at Sanbornton, 

 consisting of jive distinct walls." 



- The letter is in the 2d vol. of the Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society. 





