SOURCE OF ST. Peter's river. 63 



sumption of as large a force as would have been required 

 in the defence of so extensive a work. The number of 

 gateways it may be said, likewise excludes the possibility 

 of its being intended as a work of defence ; for they are 

 very numerous and sometimes within four or five feet of 

 each other. The unevenness of the ground, part of the 

 wall being along the sides of the hill and much lower than 

 the rest, may be urged as another strong objection to its 

 being considered as a military work. If it be not intended 

 for purposes of war, what was the intention of those who 

 erected it ? Its extent, the labour which it required in order 

 to accomplish it, its form and situation, in fine, all its cha- 

 racters would then concur in leading to the belief that it 

 must have been a religious monument; probably forming 

 an arena where their sacred festivals, their games, their 

 ceremonies could be conveniently carried on. The num- 

 ber of the gates, the heaps of stones which lay near them, 

 all tend to prove that no other origin can be safely 

 ascribed to it. It was suggested that this may perhaps be 

 the remains of a pound, similar to those made by the Indians 

 to this day, for the purpose of entrapping buffaloes and 

 other wild game. But this opinion is likewise excluded by 

 the little resistance which a wall of such small dimensions, 

 formed by the union of uncemented stones but loosely 

 piled together, would have presented to the powerful efforts 

 of the wild animals which it would have been intended to 

 enclose. Its situation on an uneven ground, likewise 

 excludes this hypothesis from any claim to plausibility. 



The stones used vary much in size, from that of a wal- 

 nut to the largest which a man may carry; doubts may 

 exist whether this wall was raised upon an earthen pa- 

 rapet ; if there was one of this kind, it has certainly dis- 

 appeared almost entirely, yet in a few places the elevation 



