104 APPENDIX. 



round, except at the end admitting entrance into the area, the enclosed space of 

 nearly an acre being level : features readily recognizable as also belonging to our 

 American " Hill Forts." The approaches to this work, as those of all others of 

 the same description, are strengthened by additional ramparts. " Those at the 

 entry," says our authority, " had extended, as I guessed, about one hundred yards, 

 and seemed to have consisted of cross-vs^alls, one behind the other, eight or ten in 

 number ; the ruins of which are still plainly perceptible. Through each of these 

 walls there must have been a gate, so that the besiegers would have been under 

 the necessity of forcing each of these gates successively, before they could carry 

 the fort ; on the opposite end of the hill, as the ground is considerably steeper, the 

 outworks seem not to have extended above twenty yards. Not far from the farther 

 end, was a well (a)? now filled up. The wall all around from the inside appears 

 to be only a mound of rubbish, consisting of loose stones : the vitrified wall is only 

 to be seen from the outside. Here the wall is covered with a crust of about two 

 feet in thickness, consisting of stones immersed among vitrified matter ; some of 

 the stones being half fused themselves, — all of them having evidently suffered a 

 considerable heat. The crust is of an equal thickness — of about two feet — from 

 the top to the bottom, so as to lie upon, and be supported by, a backing of loose 

 stones, forming in section an acute angle. Within the crust of the vitrified matter 

 is another stratum of some thickness, parallel to the former, and consists of loose 

 stones, which have been scorched by the fire, but present no marks of fusion." 



It will be perceived that in position, mode of construction, etc., these defences 

 are indistinguishable from those of America. They might be regarded, so far as 

 their apparent features are concerned, as the work of the same people ; yet they 

 were constructed by different races, separated from each other by ocean wastes, 

 and having little in common, except the possession of those savage passions which 

 have reddened every page of the world's history with blood. They serve only 

 further to illustrate how naturally, and almost of necessity, men similarly circum- 

 stanced hit upon common methods of meeting their wants, and do not necessarily 

 establish a common origin, nor a constant or casual intercourse. 



The Roman camps, vestiges of which are abundant throughout England and on 

 the continent, also bear a close analogy to a large class of the more regular 

 Western earth works, though probably differing widely from them in the purposes 

 for which they were erected. " The Romans, from the earliest period, paid par- 

 ticular attention to the security of their armies, by choosing the best situations for 

 their camps that the circumstances would permit. They did not, however, trust 

 to natural strength alone — making it an invariable rule, wherever they came, to 

 enclose themselves within an entrenchment, consisting of a rampart and ditch 

 strengthened with palisades. The fortifications were of a stronger or weaker 

 character, according to the nearness of an enemy, or the appearance of danger 

 with which they were threatened at the time. The form of the Roman camp was 

 square, contrary to that adopted by the Greeks, who made theirs round, triangular, 

 or of any other shape, as best suited the nature of the ground." — (Roy''s Military 

 Antiquities of England, p. 41.) The angles of the Roman camp were rounded, 

 on a radius of about sixty feet, and there were gateways midway upon each side ; 



