FOWKE] EARTHWORKS IN KENTUCKY A9i 
or ring of earth had formed the foundation of a temporary struc- 
ture in which was a raised earthen floor, and that it was resorted to 
only upon special occasions, as for the performance of a ceremony or 
incantation whose proceedings must be carried on in secret, or at 
least shut off from the gaze of those who might be near. 
The second mound was similar to the first but smaller, being 27 
feet between opposite outside margins and 19 feet across the highest 
points of the ridge; the latter was 18 inches high and the depth or 
thickness of the interior deposit 10 inches. Scattered through the 
material composing it were fragmentary remains of the same char- 
acter as those found in the other, but much less in amount. There 
was no sign of posts or fire bed and no trampled soil. Its purpose 
was no doubt the same as that of the other, whatever that may have 
been. 
The third mound resembled the other two, except that the central] 
depression was very slight and only a few feet across; as if a circu- 
lar embankment had been made and the enclosed space filled leve! 
except a small area at the middle part. This mound was 27 feet be- 
tween the margins, 15 or 16 feet across the top, and 30 inches high. 
The central portion was cleared out over a space 20 feet across, thus 
leaving undisturbed only a narrow ring around the base. A very 
few fragments of flint and pottery and some pieces of charcoal, none 
larger than a hen’s egg, were found loose in the earth. As in the case 
of the two others, there was nothing whatever to form the basis of a 
guess as to the purpose of this mound. 
Scattered through the forest in which these mounds are located are 
some stone box graves; but results were so discouraging that no 
further search was made. 
PREHISTORIC EARTHWORKS ABOUT SOUTH PORTS- 
MOUTH, KY. 
The aboriginal remains along the Ohio River in Greenup County, 
Ky., opposite Portsmouth, Ohio, as shown in the maps of Squier 
and Davis? and T. H. Lewis,? were carefully examined from Siloam 
Station, opposite Sciotoville, to the Government dam, a distance of 
about 9 miles. Many of the works shown by the two surveys are 
now entirely obliterated; on the other hand, there are evidences of 
prehistoric industry not indicated on any of the maps, such as small 
mounds, camp sites, piles of stones, pavements or platforms of flat 
rocks buried under accumulated soil, small spaces or narrow passage- 
* Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. (Smithson. Cont to 
Knowledge, vol. 1, Washington, 1848.) 
*T. H. Lewis, The “old fort’? earthworks of Greenup County, Ky. (Am. Journ. 
Archaeol., vol. U1, pp. 8375-382, Baltimore, 1887.) 
