British Inch as the Unit of MeasuTe of the Mound Builders. 5 1 



THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE BRITISH INCH AS THE 

 UNIT OF MEASURE OF THE MOUND BUILDERS OF 

 THE OHIO VALLEY. . , . 



Paper Contributed by J. Ralston Skinner, Dec. i, 1885. 



Very fortunate conditions seem to make the identification of 

 the unit of measure of the Mound Builders of the Ohio valley both 

 simple and easy, of demonstration. One may go further, and say 

 certain of demonstration, because certainty rests upon but two 

 matters of fact, which on examination will probably be pro- 

 nounced established. 



The first of these facts is this : That the measures of a great 

 number of these mounds in the river valleys, and on the river ter- 

 races of the State of Ohio, as reported by E. G. Squier and E. H. 

 Davis in their great and now somewhat famous work, "Ancient 

 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," published by the Smithson- 

 ian Institution in the year 1848, are to be relied on. It is but fair 

 to say that they are reliable ; both from the reiterated statements of 

 these gentlemen and because the Smithsonian Institution gave the 

 work place in its archives. Independently of these considerations 

 the reported measures of these gentlemen contain intrinsic evi- 

 dence that they were correctly taken, so strong, that we may 

 adopt them as established data for the purposes of our investiga- 

 tion. When this evidence is coupled with (i) the character of the 

 men reporting the measures, (2) the fact that their labors \yere ap- 

 proved of by and confirmed by Mr. Charles Whittlesey, Topo- 

 graphical Engineer of the State of Ohio, whose surveys of these 

 mounds were made officially, under an act of the State of Ohio, 

 for geological and topographical surveys, and contributed as part 

 of the work of these gentlemen, after they had, as to many, 

 verified and confirmed them, and (3) the acceptance and approval 

 of the institution named, it seems but reasonable to accept it as 

 decisive of the matter. This intrinsic evidence will be quite elab- 

 orately given, with a number of quotations as to the character of 

 the surveys, and as to the impressions of the surveyors, taken here 

 and there from their descriptions. 



The second of these facts is as follows : The key to this 

 matter is a stone measure now in possession of The Cincinnati So- 

 ciety of Natural History. This stone was found in and dug out of 



