238 On the Mounds of the West. 
3d. Those which contain neither altars nor human remains, 
and which were places of observation or the sites of structures. 
These classes are broadly marked in the aggregate; but, in 
some instances, they seem to run into each other. Mounds of 
this mixed character, as well as those which, under our present con- 
dition of knowledge oe them, do not seem to indicate any 
clear purpose, have been denominated anomalous. Of one hun- 
ed mounds excavated,, fay were altar or sacrificial mounds, 
twenty sepulchral, and twenty either places of observation or anom- 
alous in their character. Such however, is not the proportion in 
which they occur. Trom the fact that the mounds of sacrifice, 
are most sonciaesneys and most productive in relics, the largest 
number excavated were of that class. In the Scioto valley the 
mounds are distributed, between the three classes specified, in 
very nearly equal proportions; the mounds of observation and the 
anomalous mounds constituting, together, about one third of the 
whole number. 
Mounds of Sacrifice—The general characteristics of this ola 
of mounds are,— 
Ist. That they occur only within, or in the immediate vicinity 
of, enclosures, or sacred places 
2d. That they are actatifed. 
3d. That they contain symmetrical altars of burned clay or 
stone, on which are deposited various remains, which, in all 
cases, have been more or less subjected to the action of fire. 
Of the whole number of mounds of this class, which were ex- 
amined, four only were found to be exterior to the walls of en- 
closures; and these were but a few rods distant from the ramparts. 
e fact of stratification, in these mounds, is one of great in- 
terest and importance. The feature has heretofore been remark- 
ed but not dsc ea ior pyre £ accuracy, and has consetquelnty 
pena g so fat as whenved: is not horizontal, but always con- 
to the convex outline of the mound. € 
the strat Resto produced by the action of water, where the lay- 
ers run into each other, but is defined with the utmost distinct 
ness, and always terminates upon reaching the level of the sur- 
— earth. ‘That it is artificial will, however, need no a 
ment to prove, after an examination of one of the mounds in 
which the feature occurs ; for, it would be difficult to explain, 
by what singular combination of “igneous and aqueous” action, 
~* Some of the mounds, on the lower Mississippi, be er oad ex- 
hibiting alternate Jayers, from base to summit. msl fe from 
gen al structures here referred to, and we + ge ion ess, yprmennsaiery for a dif- 
ferent pur Prof. Forshey has de sevibea pie which had layers of — 
bricks, at intervals, throughout its entire height. 
