NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 323 



a hill." Where it is most distinct it is from fifteen to twenty feet -wicle by three 

 or four in height. The area thus enclosed is about one- hundred and forty acres, 

 and the wall is two miles and a quarter in length. The stones themselves vary 

 much in size, and Messrs. Squier and Davis suggest that the wall may originally 

 have been about eight feet high, with an equal base;. At present, trees of the 

 largest size are growing upon it. On a similar work, known as " Fort Hill," 

 Highland coimty, Ohio, Messrs. Squier and Davis found a splendid chestnut 

 tree, which they suppose to have been six hundred years old. " If," they say, 

 " to this we add the probable period intervening from the time of the building 

 of this work to its abandonment, and the subsequent period up to its invasion 

 by the forest, we are led irresistibly to the conclusion that it has an antiquity of 

 at least one thousand years. But when we notice, all around us, the crumbling 

 trunks of trees, half hidden in the accumulating soil, we are induced to fix on 

 an antiquity still more remote." 



The enclosure known as Clark's work, in Ross county, Ohio, is one of the 

 largest and most interesting. It consists of a parallelogram, two thousand eight 

 hundred feet by eighteen hundred, and enclosing about one hundred and eleven 

 acres. To the right of this, the principal work is a perfect square, containing 

 an area of about sixteen acres. Each side is eight hundred and fifty feet in 

 length, and in the middle of each is a gateway thirty feet wide, and covered by 

 a small mound. Within the area of the great work are several smaller mounds 

 and enclosures; and it is estimated that not less than three millions of cubic 

 feet of earth were used in this great undertaking. 



It has also been observed that water is almost invariably found within or 

 close to these enclosures. 



Sacred and miscellaneous enclosures. — If the purpose for which the works 

 belonging to the first class were erected is very evident, the same cannot be 

 said for those which we have now to mention. That they were not intended 

 for defence is inferred by Messrs. Squier and Davis from their small size, from 

 the ditch being inside the embankment, and from their position, which is often 

 completely commanded by neighboring heights. 



Dr. Wilson also (vol. i, p. 324) follows Sir R. C. Hoare in considering the 

 position of the ditch as being a distinguishing mark between military and 

 religious works. But Catlin expressly tells us that in the Mandan village 

 Avhich he describes, the ditch was on the inner side of the embankment, and 

 the warriors were thus sheltered while they shot their arrows through the 

 stockade. We see, therefore, that, in America at least, this is no reliable guide. 



While, however, the defensive earthworks occupy hill-tops, and other situ- 

 ations most easy to defend, the so-called sacred enclosures are genei-ally found 

 on " the broad and level river bottoms, seldom occurring upon th(> table-lands, 

 or Avhere the surface of the ground is undulating or broken." They are usually 

 square or circular in form, a circle being often combined with one or two 

 squares. " Occasionally we find them isolated, but more frequently in groups. 

 The greater number of the circles are of small size, with a nearly uniform 

 diameter of two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet, and invariably have 

 the ditch interior to the wall." Some of the circles, however, are much larger, 

 enclosing fifty acres or more. The squares or other rectangular works never 

 have a ditch, and the earth of which they are composed appears to have been 

 taken up evenly from the surface, or from large pits in the neighborhood. 

 They vary much in size ; five or six of them, however, are *' exact squares, 

 each side measuring one thousand and eighty feet — a coincidence which could 

 not possibly be accidental, and which must possess some significance." The 

 circles also, in spite of their great size, are perfectly round, so that the Ameri- 

 can archaeologists consider themselves justified in concluding that the mound- 

 builders must have had some standard of measurement, and some means of 

 determining angles. 



