26 PLAN OF AN ANCIENT FORTIFICATION AT MARIETTA, OHIO. 



C. Whittlesey, Esq., Engineer for the Survey of the State of Ohio. One mound of 

 earth seems to have escaped the notice of Mr. Sargent ; viz. that situated at the north- 

 eastern part of the largest inclosure, as it appears on the Smithsonian plan. Finally, 

 in several places, Mr. Sargent represents as a series of mounds what Mr. Whittlesey 

 describes as continuous walls. 



It is greatly to be deplored, that so little regard is generally paid by the inhabitants 

 of our Western States to these monuments of a bygone and evidently powerful race. 

 Some of these remains are, it is true, choicely guarded by the inhabitants of Marietta. 

 The beautiful mound, K, for example, is inclosed in such a manner, that it will prob- 

 ably be preserved. Other portions are kept as public squares. But the walls of the 

 graded way, E, Messrs. Squiers and Davis inform us, "are rapidly disappearing" under 

 the encroachments of carriages, which pass and repass through Warren Street, Marietta, 

 which is laid out upon it. 1 fear that this recklessness in reference to many curious 

 remains of the same character, that are scattered through the West, exists very gener- 

 ally. Even in the city of Cincinnati, I learn that a mound has been wholly extirpated, 

 and the only memento of its former existence is the name given to the street that runs 

 over its former site. During a recent visit to the West, I examined, with some care, the 

 extraordinary remains of a walled village, called " Fort Ancient." The husbandman 

 was ploughing over it, and a long passage-way projecting from its main entrance, and 

 only recently defended on each side by an embankment of considerable height, had, at 

 the time of my visit, been so obliterated, that I could discover only the slightest traces 

 of it. The United States government sends out its corps of observers to study the 

 Dead Sea, and the Antarctic regions, and to learn the habits of the untamed inhab- 

 itants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. It is right so to do. But why should it not 

 also employ an efficient body of men thoroughly to investigate all these interesting 

 structures in the West ? Much has been done by individual observers ; among whom 

 all honor is due to the authors of the first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions. 

 But much remains yet to be performed. It should be done by government, and done 

 soon, or it will be too late. 



H. I. B. 



