578 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



A similar work is reported iu Hickman couuty at the intersection of 

 Duck and Piney rivers, near Centerville, and another in La Rue county, 

 Kentucky. An embankment of earth and stone iu the fork of Duck 

 river, in Cofi'ee county, near Manchester, though much more elaboi'ate, 

 really belongs to the latter class, the wall having been thrown from 

 bluff to bluff across one end of a narrow strip of land between the east 

 and west branches of Duck river. Across the other end is a similar 

 wall; beginning where the bluffs terminate on each side of the strip of 

 land, and diverging from the streams, it forms an angle about midway 

 between the two. This work also has a guarded entrance, a short 

 wall extending inward on each side of the main entrance forming a 

 parallelogram. The right wall, extending a little beyond the other, 

 bends at a right angle across the end of the sjiace thus inclosed, 

 leaving room for an inside gateway between it and the end of the left 

 wall. Two stone mounds, some 3 feet higher than the general wall, 

 guard the main entrance from the outside. This work is an exception 

 to the general rule, as no mounds, graves, hut riugs, or other remains 

 of archeologic interest are found in or about it, except a single large 

 mound, elliptical iu form, and built of earth and loose stones, which 

 stands about half a mile from the main entrance. 



It is not unusual to tind along these walls slight elevations or pro- 

 jections, sui)posed by some to have been the foundations for towers or 

 some such works for observation or defense. The inclosure near San- 

 dersville, in Sumner county, before mentioned, furnishes an example 

 of this kind; also that in Wilson county, near Lebanon, which is a cir- 

 cular earthwork having an interior ditch. Slight elevations occur at 

 regular intervals along the inside of this wall. They are somewhat 

 higher than the embankment and slope to the bottom of the ditch. 

 This slope is divided into two parts by a level bench nearly.} feet wide. 

 Another inclosure in Williamson county, on the West Harpeth river, 

 is of this type, the irregularly circular embankment being wider at 

 intervals as if some tower or defensive structure had occupied each of 

 these points. 



The most remarkable examples of this class of works, however, are 

 found in Hardin county, in the neighborhood of Savannah. On the 

 east side of the Tennessee river, on the high grounds adjoining the town, 

 are extensive earthworks inclosing a group of mounds. The embank- 

 ment is five-sided, the ends terminating ou the high bluff of the river. 

 At intervals of 80 yards along this wall are the remains of bastions 

 which extend about 20 yards to the front along the main line and 

 30 yards at the main angles. About 55 yards in advance of this line, 

 and parallel to it, is a similar but less elevated embankment, now 

 partly obliterated, but still traceable. The bastions of this latter line 

 project 40 feet in front and alternate with those of the main line. 

 Three miles below Savannah, in the same county, a similar system of 



