THOMAS.] 



OHIO. 475 



Belo^v is a low bottom, subject to overflow, covered with a thick growth 

 ofsmallmaplesaud sycamores, with some trees of other species. Beyond 

 this bottom the river is reached, at a point where it forms a pool 300 

 feet wide with a riffle above and one below, giving several hundred 

 yards of smooth water, seemingly a good place for fish. The river 

 may have formed all this lower bottom since the construction of the 

 works. There is an oak tree 5 feet in diameter growing on the south 

 line of the embankment a short distance east of the entrance. There 

 has been ample time in the lifetime of this tree for the river to form 

 all the low ground. 



Apparently there never was any wall along the west side, for if the 

 river did not touch at the foot of the bluff when the work was con- 

 structed, the bluff could not have caved in to the extent indicated; 

 and if it did touch it there would have been no necessity for a wall, as 

 the bank would have been almost perpendicular. 



The supposed " graded way " to the water is only the ravine formed 

 by the drainage of part of the field above, and is now more diflScult of 

 ascent than any jiart of the steep bank. If ever used as a i)athway, it 

 had to be reworked and smoothed down after every heavy rain. There 

 may have been a road or pathway, now obliterated, cut along one side 

 of it, but that it is a natural ravine is beyond question. 



At the bluff the south wall and ditch seem to have extended farther 

 out than the present edge of the bank; but the small amount of wear 

 necessary to cut the bank away to give this appearance could well re- 

 sult from the drainage through the ditch, as the soil here is gravelly 

 and quite loose. The north wall stops at about 30 and the ditch at 

 about 50 feet from the edge of the bluff. 



There is no stream here known as " Dry run "; the meaning probably 

 is " a dry run"; but the meaning is immaterial, as there is no run of 

 any kind at the line so marked. Prairie run has a northeast trend along 

 the level, a short distance north of the work. At the northeast corner 

 the ditch makes a bend toward the south and extends for 90 feet to the 

 break of the bank over the so-called " Dry run." There was no ravine 

 on the east side when the embankment was made; the natural slope is 

 toward the north along this line and the water running through tlie ditch 

 has deepened and widened it; and being reenforced by that from the 

 northern ditch, the combined streams overflowing near this corner have 

 cut a channel to Prairie run. That portion of the ditch at the north- 

 east corner, on the east, is filled uj), but its course around the foot of 

 the wall is easily seen. That a sufticient amount of water could collect 

 to cut out such a course is shown by the height to which the drift is 

 piled against the bushes now growing here. Still, it would require a 

 long time for such a channel to wear, and this aids in giving an appear- 

 ance of greater antiquity to this work than seems to attach to the others 

 in this region. This eastern embankment is nearly, but not quite, 



