492 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [BTH. ANN. 44 
ways covered with river pebbles, mostly white quartz, and traces of 
ramps or graded ways from one terrace to another. 
At Siloam is the large mound surrounded by four concentric cir- 
cles, with the parallel walls extending to the river, as shown by 
Squier and Davis in their Plate XXVIII, page 81. The mound was 
not erected by human labor, but is a geological formation, cut off 
by the little stream from the high alluvial terrace to the west; 
though it has been somewhat modified in form, artificially, as these 
authors suggest. The “ graded way” to the top is largely or entirely 
natural. However, the entire structure is so altered by cultivation 
that no certainty exists as to its original form. It will be observed 
that Plates XXVIII and XXVIII differ slightly in detail. 
The mound with encircling ditch, figured by Squier and Davis on 
page 82, is not at all like the illustration, a fact quite apparent from 
the description of it given just above their cut. The work is on a 
level plain, the embankment being formed of earth taken from 
the interior ditch, and only a slight mound built on the area within 
the ditch; the earth does not drop away from the outside base of 
the wall, as shown. The whole work is now covered with a dense 
growth. Relic hunters have made several attempts at excavating 
the mound, but it is reported that they have never found anything. 
The elliptical embankment and ditch, shown at N in Plate 
XXVIII A of Squier and Davis, has entirely disappeared, if, indeed, 
it ever existed. There is no indication that any such work stood at 
this place. On the opposite side of the ravine, however, in a cor- 
responding position, is a similar structure not shown by Squier and 
Davis, which is no doubt the one intended, shifted on the map by 
an oversight. It appears on the map by Lewis. The ditch is now 
about 3 feet deep and the wall will average the same in height, as 
compared with the surrounding level. There is no mound within 
the circle; what appears to be such is due to weathering down of the 
margin of the originally level interior; it now measures about 50 by 
100 feet. In the field about this structure is abundant evidence of 
an aboriginal village site, but the material is all superficial and is 
probably due to historic tribes; it is known that the Shawnees and 
Delawares had settlements somewhere in this vicinity. Near the west 
side of the gateway where the wall is now highest a cut 15 feet wide 
was made through the embankment, reaching from the interior ditch 
to the open ground outside, thus extending well beyond both margins 
of the wall, and carried into the subsoil the entire length. Nothing 
was found except solid uniform earth, with no stratification or change 
of color, thus proving that its construction was continuous. The ex- 
cavation crossed a shallow depression, which was a natural swale 
existing before the wall was begun. This made more work for the 
builders than if they had gone on either side of it; but they appar- 
