86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 37 
The cross ‘‘trench’’ mentioned by Judge West—who, by a slip of 
the pen, uses the word ‘“‘trench”’ on several occasions when he means 
‘“‘embankments”—can be traced only so far as is shown on the map 
by the short projection from the eastern wall. There is an opening 
at the southwest end through which a farm road passes; it can not be 
ascertained whether this is the ‘“‘pass-way”’ to which Judge West 
refers, or a modern road. There is another opening farther toward 
the east, as shown on the map, which may be the one he mentions; 
but it is not referred to specifically in either account from which 
these quotations are made. 
At the south end two short minor walls appear within the main 
wall; there is also an exterior ditch beginning at the top of the 
steep slope, about 50 feet from the main outer ditch, and connecting 
with it at what is perhaps the ‘‘pass-way” of Judge West’s de- 
scription. One of the short interior walls joins the ditch inside the 
main wall. . 
These areall the features of the ‘‘ Fort’? which can now be traced; 
more might be discovered were it completely cleared off. The 
process of cultivation has destroyed much, and has defaced nearly 
all that is left. 
It is reported that in the mounds at the north end, which have 
been repeatedly dug into, many skeletons were exhumed from a 
depth of 18 to 20 inches beneath the surface, “‘ piled in on one another 
as if all thrown in at one time.” At the south end skeletons were 
also found in the space between the ditches outside the wall and still 
others inside the ‘‘ Fort”’ near the west side. A skull from the latter 
place ‘‘had a gold plug in one tooth.”’ 
The ‘‘ Fort”? much resembles some of those farther east, especially 
along the lower lakes, which are known to be of comparatively recent 
origin. There is nothing ‘‘remarkable” or ‘‘ wonderful” about it, 
nothing to indicate any greater ‘‘ability”’ than the capacity to trace 
a fairly level line around a hilltop and pile earth along it. 
It has been surmised this may be the fort erected by the Miami 
Indians; but theirs was a small affair, inclosing not more than ‘“‘a 
fourth of an acre,”’ and surrounded by logs, ‘‘in an elevated prairie 
bottom,’’ in the upper end of Saline county, ‘‘four or five miles 
below the town of Miami.”’ 
On a ridge or knoll a fourth of a mile northwest of the “Fort” 
are several burial mounds. Nothing more definite could be learned 
in regard to them than is contained in the extracts from Judge West’s 
paper. 
VILLAGE SITE aT “THE PINNACLES ”’ 
From half a mile to a mile eastward from the “‘ Fort” erosion has 
cut numerous ravines in various directions in the plateau, leaving 
the higher portions somewhat in the form of a letter T, the top of 
