124 Natural Resources of the Western Country. 
abundance, in the caves of Tennessee, and the southern parts of 
Kentucky. In 1828, two mummies were discovered in a complete 
state of preservation, ina cave in West Tennessee; and from the 
facts which have been disclosed by an examination of their forms 
and complexions, as well as of the manner in which they were en- 
tombed, we may infer that they belonged to another race, and one 
anterior to the present race of Indians. I believe we a £05 of one 
of these remains has been lodged in the New York m 
‘In one of the caverns of East Tennessee, which I visited i in 1824, 
I found a very large number of human bones; and, indeed, in pass- - 
ing through the cavern, they formed my only pavement for almost an 
hundred yards. Some of the bones were very large, and indicated 
(by measurement) that their former owners were but little under seven 
feet in height. e skeletons were not laid in any particular order, 
but appeared to have been thrown in, indiscriminately. ‘The bones 
of animals were also mixed among them. I suppose it is generally 
known that the greater part of these caves contain nitre (salt-petre 
‘ e one I visited, however, contained but little. On my 
egress from the cave, I saw some fine specimens of fluor attached, 
in crystals, to the sides of the mouth, which thus appeared highly 
ornamented. 
A very curious graveyard was discovered, some years ago, in Mid- 
dle Tennessee. ‘The persons that had been buried were very small, 
perhaps not more than three or four feet in height. The graves, 
which were made to correspond in size, were very shallow. A stone 
laid in the bottom, one on each side, and one on the top formed the 
simple domicil of these little beings. A small earthen vessel was 
placed in each grave: the use for which we are as much at a loss to 
understand, as we are to account for the existence of the graves 
themselves. 
- The labors of a past race of human beings are every where 
visible in the Western Country. And this is particularly to be ob- 
served in the mounds of earth, which are very numerous in Ohio, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee. The mounds and remains of an ancient 
fortification, upon which the city of Cincinnati is built, have often 
been described. The implements of war and husbandry, which have 
been found with these remains, are very curious and offer to the mind 
of the Antiquarian much that is interesting and instructive. I am in- 
formed, by a respectable gentleman, that some miles above Cincin- 
“nati there is a large annular mound, (on which the town of Circle- 
