SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 55 



leans ; they have already planted twelve acres of it, and 

 from the experiments which have been made, anticipate 

 much success in this culture, 

 /^t The expedition stopped for a day at Piqua, a small in- 

 corporated town, situated on the west bank of the Miami 

 river, and on a spot which appears to have been the site 

 of a numerous Indian population. The river is navigable 

 for keel boats, a few miles above the town, during half the 

 year. The town is built in a semicircular bend of the 

 river, so that its streets, which are rectilinear, and parallel 

 to the chord of the arc, are terminated at both ends by the 

 water. The spot is one of the most advantageous in the 

 country for a large population ; the situation is very fine 

 for defence against aggressors ; and we find that with their 

 accustomed discrimination, the Indians had made this one 

 of their principal seats. The remains of their works are 

 very interesting, and being, we believe, as yet undescribed, 

 we surveyed them with such means as were at our dis- 

 posal. They consist for the most part of circular parapets, 

 the elevation of which varies at present from three to five 

 or six feet ; but which bear evident marks of having been 

 at one time much higher ; many of them are found in the 

 neighbourhood of the town, and several of them in the 

 town itself. The plough passes every year over some 

 parts of these works, and will probably continue to unite 

 its levelling influence with that of time, to obliterate the 

 last remains of a people, who, judging from the monuments 

 which it has left behind, must have been far more advanced 

 in civilization than the Indians who were found there a 

 century or two ago ; and of whom a few may still be seen 

 occasionally roving about the spot, where their fathers met 

 in council. 

 We observed one elliptic and five circular works, two of 



