1821.] 



tire of Saxony, and studied at Leipsic 

 and Berlin ; his researches have been 

 especially devoted to botany, and ento- 

 mology. 



The architect Limaine is a native of 

 Berlin, and has already made the tour 

 of Italy throughout. Previous to his 



Proceedings of Public Societies, 



513 



embarking for Egypt, he retuured to 

 Rome, the better to prepare for a new 

 voyage, by studying the cabinet of the 

 Prussian architect Gau, who is allowed 

 by the connoisseurs to be richer in 

 Egyptian ciiriosities than any other 

 modern traveller. 



PROCEEDINGS OF PQBLIC SOCIETIES. 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN 

 SOCIETY. 



THE American Antiquarian 

 Society owes its origin and much 

 of its success to the exertions and the 

 munificence of the individual who sus- 

 tains the office of its president, Isaiah 

 Thomas, Esq. of Worcester, and it ob- 

 tained an act of incorporation October 

 24, 1S12. 



Its immediate and peculiar design is 

 to discover the antiquities of America; 

 to preserve relics and implements of 

 the Aborigines ; and to collect manu- 

 script and printed documents and books, 

 relating to the early settlement and 

 subsequent history of the country. 



The greater portion of the original 

 articles contained in the first volume of 

 its memoirs consists of descriptions of 

 ancient works by Caleb Atwater, Esq. 

 of Circleville, Ohio, communicated in 

 an epistolary correspondence with the 

 president of the society. 



Mr. Atwater remai-ks, 



' Our antiquities belong not only to dif- 

 ferent ei"as, ia point of time, but to several 

 nations ; and those articles, belonging- to 

 the same era and the same people, were in- 

 tended by their authors to be applied to 

 many different uses. 



' We shall divide these antiquities into 

 three classes. 1. Those belonging to In- 

 dians. 2. To people of European origin ; 

 and 3. Those of that people who raised 

 our antient forts and tumuli. 



' Those antiquities, which, in the strict 

 sense of the term, belonp to the North 

 American Indians, are neither numerous 

 nor very interesting. They consist of 

 rude stone axes and knives, of pestles 

 used in preparing maize for food, of 

 arrow-heads, and a few other articles, so 

 exactly similar to those found in all the 

 Atlantic states, that a desciiptiou of them 

 is deemed quite useless.' p. 111. 



The antiijuitles, belonging to people 

 of European origin, consist principally 

 of articles left by some of the first tra- 

 vellers in these parts of the country, or 

 buried with Indians who had obtained 

 them, perhaps, from the early settlers 

 of Canada. 



' The third and most highly interesting 



class of antiquities comprehends those he- 

 longing to that people who erected our an- 

 cient forts and tumuli; those military 

 works, whose walls and ditches cost so 

 much labour in their structure; those nu- 

 merous and sometimes lofty mounds, which 

 owe their origin to a people far more civi- 

 lized than our Indians, but far less so thau 

 Europeans. These works are interesting, 

 on many accounts, to the antiquarian, the 

 philosopher, and the divine; especially 

 when we consider the immense extent of 

 country which they cover, the great la- 

 bour which they cost their authors, the ac- 

 quaintance with the useful arts which that 

 people had, when compared with our pre- 

 sent race of Indians, the grandeur of many 

 of the works themselves, the total absence 

 of all historical records or even tradition- 

 ary accounts respecting them, the great 

 interest which the learned have taken in 

 them, to which we may add the destruc- 

 tion of them, which is going on in almost 

 every place where they are found in this 

 whole country.' p. 120. 



' They abound most in the vicinity of 

 good streams, and are never, or rarely, 

 found, except in a fertile soil. They are 

 no£ found in the prairies of Ohio, and 

 rarely in the barrens, and there they are 

 small, and situated on the edge of them, 

 and on dry ground.' p. 124. 



These ancient works consist, 1. of 

 mounds, or tumuli, of a conical form, 

 from five feet to more thau a htindred 

 in height : 2. of elevated squares, suji- 

 posed to be 'high places' for sacred 

 purposes, or the foundations of tem- 

 ples; and these are of various dimen- 

 sions and heights: 3. of walls of earth, 

 from five to twenty feet high, and en- 

 closing from one acre to more than a 

 hundred; some laid out in regular 

 squares, some made exactly circular, 

 and some of irregular construction. 

 The pi'incipal of these seemed to have 

 been intended for fortifications, or as 

 the means of fencing in large towns : 

 and 4. of j)araliel\vallsofearlh, extend- 

 ing sometimes several miles ; believed 

 to be designed for covered ways, for 

 race grounds, and for places of amuse- 

 ment. They all appear (o have been 

 built with ' earth taken up unifoiiuly 

 from the surface of llie plain on vhich 



they 



