’ * 
246 On the Mounds of the West. 
of the group is much the largest, twice or three times the dimen- 
sions of any of the others, and that the smaller ones are arranged 
around its base, generally joining it, thus evincing an intended 
dependence and close connection between them. Plans of three 
Fig. 3 groups of this description are giv- 
en in the annexed figures. May 
we not conclude that such a group 
is the tomb of a family—the prin- 
cipal mound covering the head 
of the same, the smaller ones 
e 
Grave creek mound, it is possi- 
ble that, instead of building a 
new mound, an additional cham- 
r was constructed upon the 
Sere sins be 
Ge) summit of the one already rai- 
sed—a single mound being thus 
made to occupy the place of a 
er 
oup. 
_ Mounds of Observation.—On the tobe of the hills and on the 
jutting points of the table lands, bordering the vallies in which 
the earthworks of the West are found, mounds occur in consider- 
able numbers. The most elevated and commanding positions are 
frequently crowned with them, suggesting at once the same use 
to which the cairns of the Celts were applied—that of signal or 
alarm posts. Ona high hill, opposite Chillicothe, 600 feet in 
height, the loftiest in the whole region, one of these mounds is 
aced. A fire built upon it would be visible for a distance of 
fifteen or twenty miles up and down the river, as well as for @ 
number of miles up the valley of Paint creek,—a broad and fer- 
tile valley, abounding in ancient monuments. Between Chilli- 
cothe and Columbus, a distance of 45 miles, there are about 
twenty mounds, so placed that, it is believed, if the country were 
cleared of forests, signals by fire could be transmitted, along the 
whole line, in a few minutes. Our examination of this descrip- 
tion of mounds, from a variety of causes, has been comparative- 
ly limited. So far as our personal observation goes, they contain 
none of the remains found in the two classes of mounds, just 
described ; and, although there are traces of fire around most of 
them, the marks are not sufficiently strong to justify fully, the 
inferences that they were Jookouts and fires used as the signals. 
Indeed, it is certain that, in some cases, they contain human re- 
mains, undoubtedly those of the mound builders. It is possible 
that a portion were devoted to sepulture, another portion to obser- 
vation, or that some answered a double purpose. ‘This isa point 
which remains to be settled, by more extended observation. 
