Primitive Architecture in America. 805 



view of tlie whole valley of the river, but a beacon on its summit 

 •can be seen from another high mound in Butler couotj and from 

 one at Springboro, and from the works at Ft. Ancient. The Grave 

 Creek Mound is 70 feet in height and nearly 1,000 feet in circum- 

 ference at its base. It was built, evidently, as a sepulchral 

 mound ; two vaults having been found in it, which contained at 

 the time it was opened over 3,000 shell beads, several bracelets of 

 copper, various articles carved in stone and a number of orna- 

 ments. A stone mound once existed near Newark, 0., made up of 

 stone laid up without cement, 52 feet high and a circular base of 

 182 feet in diameter. During the year 1831-32 not less than 60 

 teams were employed in hauling stone from it, and carried away 

 from 10,000 to 15,000 wagon loads. The Big Mound in St. Louis 

 was 150 feet in length and 30 in height. Within this was also 

 a sepulchral tomb, 8 to 12 feet wide, 75 feet long and 8 to 10 feet 

 in height, in which from twenty to thirty burials had taken place. 

 The great mound at Seltzertown, Mississippi, is in the form of a 

 truncated pyramid, about 600 by 400 feet at its base, and cover- 

 ing nearly six acres of ground. It is placed to coincide with 

 the cardinal points, its greater length being from east to west. It 

 is 4.0 feet high, and reached by a graded way leading to a plat- 

 form on the summit, whose area is four acres, and from which rise 

 three, conical, truncated mounds, about 40 feet in height, and 

 eight smaller ones. 



The Messier Mound, Early county, Ga., is in the form of the 

 frustum of a rectangular pyramid, 66 by 156 feet at the summit, 

 which is a level plane. The base measures, northern side, 188 

 feet ; southern side, 198 feet ; eastern and western sides, 324 feet 

 each. This tumulus contains 75,000 cubic yards of earth, and 

 would weigh from 90,000 to 100,000 tons, to remove which, by 

 modern means, would cost $50,000, under the same conditions 

 that would require the labor of 1,000 savages one year with the 

 aid of baskets, etc., for the transfer of the earth. 



In speaking of these latter mounds, Hon. C. C. Jones says : 



" Upon even a cursory examination of these groups of mounds 



with their attendant ditches, earth- walls and fish-preserves, it is 



diflScult to resist the impression that they are the remains of 



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