428 Kain on Caves. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Art. XXI. An Account of several Ancient Mounds, and of 

 two Caves, in East Tennessee, by Mr. John Henry 

 Kain, of Knoxville. 



(Communicated for the American Jouraal of Science, &c.) 



Mounds. 



V7N the plantation of Mr. John Kain of Knox county, near 

 the north bank of the Holston River, 6 miles above its junc- 

 tion with the French Broad, is a curious collection of mounds 

 of earth, evidently the work of art, but of an almost antedilu- 

 vian antiquity, if we may form any conjecture of their age, 

 from that of the forest which grows around and upon them. 

 They are about half a dozen in number, and arise on about 

 half an acre of level ground without any seeming regularity. 

 They are pyramidal in their shape, or rather sections of pyra- 

 mids, whose bases are from 10 to 30 paces in diameter. The 

 largest one in this group rises about 10 feet above the level 

 ground, and is remarkably regular in its figure. A perpendi- 

 cular section of this mound was made about a year since, but 

 no important discovery was made. It was found to consist of 

 the surface thrown up, and contained a good deal of ashes and 

 charcoal. 



This group of mounds is surrounded by a ditch, which can 

 be distinctly traced on three sides, and enclosing besides the 

 mounds, several acres of ground. It is like the mounds co- 

 vered with trees, which grow in it and about it. At every 

 angle of this ditch, it sweeps out into a semicircle, and it ap- 

 pears in many respects well calculated for defence. 



There are many other mounds of the same form in Tennes- 

 see. At the junction of the French Broad with the Holston, 

 there is one in which human bones are said to have been found. 



