THOMAS] * THE OHIO DISTRICT. 5fil 



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forming an inclosure of comparatively small size. There are, at one 

 point in Louisa oounty, Iowa, two parallel walls acroSs a bluff point. 

 As each has a ditch on the side of approach it is evident they were 

 thrown up as defensive works. There are a few inclosures in western 

 and middle Indiana. In addition to those alluded to, one in Orange 

 county is worthy of passing notice. It consists, of a double wall and . 

 an intervening ditch ; on the inclosed area are twelve small mounds sup- 

 posed from the slight exploration made to be dwelling sites. 



There have been discovered in Oass and Whitesides counties, Illi- 

 nois, some rather singular antiquities in the form of stone floors or pave- 

 ments ; some in mounds but others under the surface with no mound 

 above them. These are described as composed of flat stones fitted as 

 closely together as possible without dressing, usually over a space 

 about 12 by 8 feet iind depressed in the middle to the depth of 10 inches. 

 Some of these floors consist of only one layer of stones, others of two. 

 The stones are found reddened and cracked by long exposure to heat, and 

 in one instance were covered with a mass of ashes and coals a foot thick 

 in the center. Scattered through this mass were the charred human 

 bones of at least three skeletons, but there wc^re indications that more 

 bodies than these had been burned here. This mass, however, had evi- 

 dently been covered with dirt while yet suKUxldering. St<nie floors, so 

 far as I am aware, have as yet been discovered at but three or four 

 ■ other points — one in southern Illinois, another at Fort Ancient, Ohio, 

 and .another in western Pennsylvania. Those, however, of Cass and 

 Whitesides counties, if we may judge by the description, which is not 

 very clear, geem to bear a (closer resemblance to the basin-shaped clay 

 beds of the mounds in Little Tennessee valley than to any other re- 

 mains yet observed. 



Several caches of flint "implements Inxve been- found in the valley of 

 the Illinois river. In some cases those found in a single cache amounted 

 to several hundred. In one instance, where the number hidden away 

 amounted to some hundreds, a pit had been dug and the -implements 

 deposited in regular layers with alternate layers of sand between. 

 Tliis seems to justify the conclusion reached by some ai-cheologists that 

 the object was to render them more easily forked to the desired finish. . 



THE OHIO DISTRICT. 



This includes, as at present defined, the eastern part of Indiana, all 

 of Ohio, except the northern V)elt along the lake border belonging to 

 the Huron-Iroquois district, and the southwestern x)ortion of West Vir- 

 ginia. The eastern and western limits are not well marked and no 

 attempt is made here to give definite boundaries in these directions. 

 On the south, the Ohio river appears to form a pretty well defined 

 limit, the peculiar features of the opposite districts showing themselves 

 but seldom on the northern side. 

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