THE VALUE OF FOLAB EXPEDITIONS. 81 



bankment with an inside ditch and open gateway. In some of these the 

 wall is as much as three feet high — in others the elevation is barely percep- 

 tible. 



"Under the bluff, and near the margin of the river, a number of very 

 strong chalybeate springs break out. These were probably the attractions 

 which invited the unknown builders to this spot. 



"About three-quarters of a mile east of this group of works is another 

 large work differing somewhat in shape, but yet constructed substantially 

 on the same principle. This is an imperfect parallelogram rounded at the 

 corners and the two side lines slightly bent inward at the middle. The 

 length of each side wall is one hundred and sixty feet, and the width of the 

 space between them at the ends is seventy-five feet, and seventy feet in the 

 middle. The earth-wall is about four feet above the common level, and 

 twelve feet above the bottom of the ditch. The gateway at the east end of 

 the inclosure is eight feet wide, and an embankment extends across the 

 ditch at the level of the surrounding surface, making a roadway thirty-six 

 feet long. On each side of the entrance of this gate, and at a little distance 

 from it, stands a low mound, and several other imperfect traces of minor 

 work to the south of this, in a cultivated field. Trees probably five hun- 

 dred years old are growing on the large space inclosed by this work, and 

 the decaying remains of several fallen oaks still larger were observed, 



"It is in vain to conjecture when, by whom, or for what purpose these 

 works, at an enormous expense of skill and labor, were constructed. Time 

 and patient investigation may give ns the clew. 



GEOGRAPHICAL. 



THE VALUE OF POLAR EXPEDITIONS. 



In view of the very discouraging results of the British Arctic expedition 

 nnder Captain Nares, some writers are beginning to question whether such 

 expeditions do not serve to demonstrate the vitality, endurance and perse- 

 verance of the explorers rather than their ability to achieve the desired 

 objects. Were the mere distancing others in reaching the goal of the geo- 

 graphical point called the Xorth Pole and the settlement of the long vexed 

 question of an open, or a palaeocrystic, polar sea all that are to be accomp- 

 lished by so great an expenditure of labor, money and human suffering, 

 this view of the matter would be correct, and the sooner such explorations 

 were abandoned the better. But these are the least important of all the 

 results looked for by scientific men, who continue to urge the formation of 



