Vn. SUMMIT COUNTY— EARTH-WORKS, ETC. 17 



close observer, on the east road half a mile from the "Burg," as the centre of the 

 township is called. The soil is dry and gravelly, though the situation is low, 

 nearly on a level with a swamp of several hundred acres on the north-east. The 

 land to the south and east rises very gradually. The figure forms an imperfect 

 circle, having straight portions of two or three rods in length, and is eighteen rods 

 in diameter. The owner has placed a barn over it on the south side, and a house on 

 the west. As usual, the present proprietor appears to have a special grudge against 

 his predecessors; and by dint of much ploughing and scraping, has nearly demo- 

 lished the ancient monuments of their labor. 



Two very fine and constant springs discharge their waters in rivulets on each 

 side, the only perennial ones, as I am told, within a distance of two miles. 



There appears to be but one opening, which looks towards the swamp. Where 

 the wall is untouched it is two feet high, and ten broad ; and the ditch is of the 

 same dimensions. 



It is very doubtful whether this was intended for defence, or at least for protracted 

 resistance. The ground inside is not smooth, but uneven. The location pleasant; 

 though lower than the surrounding country, except on the swamp side. It was 

 probably a place of residence for families, who cultivated the adjacent lands. About 

 a mile north-east, on a knoll overlooking a large tract, is a low mound containing 

 bones and pieces of hardened clay, with small stone ornaments. 



PLATE VII. Fig. A. 



NORTH FIELD, SUMMIT COUNTY, OHIO. 



The engineers who selected the site of this fortification, understood very well the 

 art of turning natural advantages to good account. Why they did not embrace in 

 their plan the whole of the level space within the crest of the bluff, is not easily 

 explained, unless we presume that their numbers were few, and not sufficient to 

 defend the whole. On all sides, the guUeys are from eighty to one hundred and 

 ten feet deep, worn, by running water, into the blue and yellow hard pan that here 

 forms the bluflfs of the valley of the Cuyahoga River. The earth is as steep as it will 

 stand ; and, in fact, is subject to slides, that lie in terraces, resembling platforms, 

 made by art. Before the ground was cultivated, the ditches are said by Milton 

 Arthur, Esq., the owner of the land, to have been so deep that a man standing 

 in them could not look over the wall. 



The soil is gravel, but at about ten feet depth is the impervious "hard pan," or 

 " upland drift," of this region. In the gully on the north the water is permanent 

 at all seasons, running over gi-een shales and sandstones, on which the drift rests. 

 But the ancient inhabitants appear to have dug wells within the fort, at the points 

 indicated by large black dots, which the old settlers say were stoned up, like our wells. 

 5 



