144 AMERICAN LITERARY FORGERIES. 



oWiterates relics sucli as Layard and Botta could not matct. Engineer- 

 ing science has brought all its latest appliances to bear for the purpose 

 of bridging the Mississippi River ; but only, if we are to believe this 

 marvellous story, to discover that the thing had been much more 

 effectually accomplished ages before. The excavations, it seems, were 

 proceeding for the foundation of one of the main piers of the bridge, 

 on the western side ; a huge blast of gunpowder was fired by workmen 

 engaged in blasting the rock, when, "instead of having to wait the usual 

 time for the smoke to clear away, they saw it ascend rapidly in a 

 column, as though issuing from the smoke-stack of one of our steamers." 

 They had, in fact, blown up the roof of a wonderful " cavernous exca- 

 vation ;" which is fully described under the heading of " Prehistoric 

 Remains in the west." Ropes, ladders, and torches were procured; 

 and the writer of the narrative was " invited to accompany the Board 

 of Engineers with a delegation from the Academy of Sciences and the 

 Historical Society." He promises " a full exposition of the discovery, 

 when he shall have made a more careful survey." Without waiting 

 for this, however, his present abstract has marvels enough for the 

 students of " Archaic Anthropology" and '' the early migration of 

 races." The subterranean passage, we are told, "passes entirely under 

 the river to the Illinois shore, and whether it is wholly the work of 

 some ancient race who once inhabited this land, whose interesting 

 remains are strewn so thickly up and down this great valley, or whether 

 it is partly natural and partly artificial, remains to be seen. In any 

 case it is none the less stupendous. The main passage we should judge 

 to be about twenty feet high by fifteen broad, and systematically arched 

 overhead ', part of the way by cutting through solid rock and part by 

 substantial masonry. The bottom seemed to be much worn as if by 

 carriage wheels of some sort. There are many lateral passages which 

 of course, we had no time to enter. These are about eight feet high 

 and six feet wide. In the main passage we saw no tools or implements 

 of workmanship ; but on entering one of the lateral branches we soon 

 emerged into a large chamber supported by leaning pillars of solid rock 

 when the chamber was excavated. Around the walls of this chamber 

 there were what seemed to be niches closed with closely-fitting slabs, 

 each slab covered with inscriptions in Runic uniform characters, which 

 to our eyes bore a marvellous resemblance to those upon the slab in the 

 Mercantile Library, which was brought from the ruins of Nineveh. 

 Between the niches were projecting pilasters, with draped Assyrian or 



