!8!>i.] 



The American Antiquarian Society. 



545 



of forty acres. This Mr. Atwater de- 

 scribes, aud then remarks, 



' It is on high ground, and of course 

 could not have been a place of habitation 

 for any length of time. It might have been 

 the place where some solemn feast was 

 annually held by the tribe by which it was 

 formed. The place has now become a 

 forest, and the soil is too poor to have ever 

 been cultivated by a people who invariably 

 chose to dwell on a fertile spot.' p. 132. 



There is next given a very particular 

 description of the works at Marietta, 

 extracted, with handsome acknowledg- 

 ments, from a volume which contains 

 some elaborate discussions upon the 

 Western antiquities. 



The works at Circleville are among 

 the most perfect and curious in the 

 whole region. 



' There are two forts, one being an exact 

 circle, the other an exact square. The 

 former is surrounded by two walls, with 

 a deep ditch between them. The latter is 

 encompassed by one wall without any 

 ditch. The former was sixty-nine feet in 

 diameter, measuring from outside to outside 

 of the circular outer wall; the latter is 

 exactly fifty-five rods square, measuring 

 the same way. The walls of the circular 

 fort were at least twenty feet in height, mea- 

 suring from the bottom of the ditch before 

 the town of Circleville was built. The 

 inner wall was of clay, taken up probably 

 in the northern part of the fort, where was 

 a low place, and is still considerably lower 

 than any other part of the work. The out- 

 side wall was taken from the ditch which 

 is between these walls, and is alluvial, con- 

 sisting of pebbles worn smooth in water, 

 and sand, to a very considerable depth, 

 more than fifty feet at least. The outside 

 of the walls is about five or six feet in 

 height now ; on the inside, the ditch is at 

 present generally not more than fifteen 

 feet. They are disappearing before us 

 daily, and will soon be gone. The walls 

 of the square fort are, at this time, where 

 left standing, about ten feet in height. 

 There were eight gate-ways, or openings, 

 leading into the square fort, and only one 

 into the circular fort. Before each of these 

 openings was a mound of earth, perhaps 

 fourfeet high, forty feet perhaps in diameter 

 at the base, and twenty or upwards at the 

 summit. These mounds, for two rods or 

 more, are exactly in front of the gate- 

 ways, and were intended for the defence of 

 these openings. As this work was a per- 

 fect square, so the gateways and their 

 watch towers were equidistant from each 

 other. These mounds were in a perfectly 

 straight line, and exactly parallel with the 

 wall.' p. 141,142. 



' The extreme care of the authors of 

 these works to (jrotect and defend every 

 part of the circle is uo where visible about 



this square fort. The former is defended 

 by two high walls ; the latter by one. The 

 former has a deep ditch encircling it ; thi» 

 has none. The former could be entered at 

 one place only ; this at eight, and those 

 about twenty feet broad. The present 

 town of Circleville covers all the round 

 and the western half of the square fort.' 

 p. 143. 



' The walls of this" work vary a few de- 

 grees from north and south, east and west ; 

 but not more than the needle varies, and 

 not a few surveyors have, from this circum- 

 stance, been impressed with the belief that 

 the authors of these works were acquainted 

 with astronomy. What surprised me on 

 measuring these forts, was the exact man- 

 ner in which they had laid down their 

 circle and square; so that after every 

 effort by the most careful survey to detect 

 some error in their measurement, we found 

 that it was impossible, and that the mea- 

 surement was much more correct than it 

 would have been in all probability, had 

 the present inhabitants undertaken to con- 

 struct such a work. Let those consider 

 this circumstance, who affect to believe 

 that these antiquities were raised by the 

 ancestors of the present race of Indians.' 

 p. 144. 



The author describes also the works 

 at Paint Creek, which are less regular 

 in their structure, and enclose elevar 

 tions of an elliptical, a triangular, and 

 a crescent form ; those at Portsmouth ; 

 those on the Little Miami ; and tliose 

 at Cincinnati; but, as a just idea of 

 them, and indeed of those which we 

 have mentioned above, is dependent 

 upon the drawings, to which a constant 

 reference is made, we must refer our 

 readers to the book itself, assuring 

 them that it will highly gratify their 

 curiosity and reward their examinat ion. 

 We have next a description of the 

 mounds, which are of three kinds: 

 1. tumuli of earth ; which appear to be 

 cemeteries, or monuments in honour 

 of the illustrious dead : 2. conical piles, 

 principally of stone ; which miglit have 

 been altars, or formed for sacred pur- 

 poses : aud 3. pyramidical mounds ; 

 which are supposed to have been obser- 

 vatories, or watch-towers. 



' The mounds or tumuli of earth, are of 

 various altitudes and dimensions, some 

 being only four or five feet in height, and 

 ten or twelve feet in diameter at their base; 

 whilst others, as we travel to the south, 

 rise to the height of eighty and ninety 

 feet. 



' They are, generally, when completed, 

 in the form of a cone. Tlios3 in the north 

 part of Ohio are inferior in size, and fewer 

 in number, than those along the river. 

 The mounds arc believed to c.\ist from the 



Rock v 



