52 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



the Sixth and Mound street mound in the City of Cinciniuiti at tlie 

 time of its removal, by Mr. C. P. (iridley, now ot ihe City of 

 Springfield, Ohio. He deposited it in the collection of The 

 Western Academy of Natural Sciences, where it was labeled as con- 

 tributed by him ; the original label being now on the stone. The 

 collection of The Western Academy of Natural Sciences, this 

 stone being part of it, passed into the possession of the present so- 

 ciety. This is fully verified by the statement of Mr. Gridley him- 

 self made to Dr. H. H. Hill, an officer of this society, December 

 5, 1878, on the occasion of his (Mr. Gridley) coming to this city 

 (Cincinnati) for the purpose of obtaining this stone. The state- 

 ment is so important that it is made a part of this paper in Appen- 

 dix A. The elliptical mound in which this stone was found is the 

 same in which was recovered the " Gcst Tablet '" as to which so 

 much has been said and written. (See Appendix C.) 



The writer of this paper, while making investigation into the 

 origin of our British measures, was amazed at the ancient univer- 

 sal use of like achitectural symbols all over the world in all lands. 

 Very especially at the almost identity of geometrical display of the 

 Mound Builder's remains with that of the old Egyptian and 

 Hebrews. While examining into this matter in the works of 

 Squier and Davis, spoken of, he was astonished to find that the 

 reported measures given in British feet were such in numbers that 

 a system was disclosed in the general construction, which system 

 could not have been disclosed had any other unit of measure than 

 the British inch been used. So impressed was he with the fact, 

 and yet so impossible did it seem, that in a work, entitled 

 *' Source of Measures," published in the year 1875, ^^^ made the 

 following remark : " Mounds showing British measures. In 

 searching in the works of Siiuier and Davis a great number of 

 measures were found, and it was very observable that the English 

 measures seemed so fitting that it was difficult to free the mind 

 from dwelling on their use in the original construction. These 

 measures seemed to be multiples of 3, 4, 6 and 12, and kept run- 

 ning toward the value 360. These facts were noted at the time 

 as curious ; but any possible connection seemed, even as it does 

 now, but a wild freak of the imagination, and the matter, though 

 noted, was dropped." 



It happened fortunately, that Mr. R. B. Moore, a member of 

 The Cincinnati Society of Natural History, and former President 



