1 1-0 SUPPOSED FORTIFICATIONS OF 



ject. What was the real design of them may be left to future 

 inquiry. It is true, that we want here a compass to guide us, 

 and are left to find our way through this night of time, in the 

 best manner we can. I have already said, that those enclo- 

 sures carried along with them strong evidence of their being 

 fixed habitations. If so, then they were designed merely as 

 lines of demarkation, shewing the particular spot, or portion 

 of ground, which a family wished to appropriate; and indeed, 

 they may be considered as exemplars of the manner in which 

 land limits would be ascertained, previous to that period, when 

 geometry begins to point out a mode more worthy of intelligent 

 beings. This rude mode might, in a sequel of years, have intro- 

 duced a geometry among the Aborigines of America. Though 

 they had not a Nile to obliterate land marks, still the desire of 

 saving labour would produce in one case, what anxiety to pre- 

 serve property did in the other. If the same mode has not 

 been continued, it has arisen from the means, which Euro- 

 pean or American art has supplied, of accomplishing the same 

 end with much more facility. 



The people inhabiting this country must have been nume- 

 rous. The frequency of their burying places is a proof. The 

 traveller finds them in every direction, and often, many in 

 every mile. Under a mild climate, a people will always mul- 

 tiply in proportion to the quantity of food, which they can 

 procure. Here, the waters contain fish in considerable abun- 

 dance, some weighing not less than 60 or 80 pounds. Not far 

 distant are those extensive and fertile plains, which were 

 crowded with wild animals. The mildness of the climate is 

 also remarkable. It appears to equal that of Richmond or 

 Williamsburg; though the huge range of mountains which 

 attend the Allegheny have not yet disappeared, and though 

 the latitude of the place where Elk and Kanha ,\ a rivers meet, 

 according to an observation which I made with an imperfect 

 instrument, is 38° 2'. All these circumstances were highly 

 favorable to population; and also to permanent residence. 

 Another circumstance, the face of the country, or locality, 

 would serve to prevent this increase of population from diffusing 

 itself on every side, and consequently would condense a tribe ; 



