VII. LAKE COUNTY— EARTH-WORKS, ETC. 19 



The work is not more than half a mile from the rich bottom lands of the Scioto, 

 which its builders probably cultivated. 



A very large Pyrula perversa, about eight inches long, now in the State Cabinet 

 at Columbus, was found near Mr. Johnson's house, about two feet below the sur- 

 face, on the bottoms. There were two of them, which lay touching each other at 

 the apex ; the one in the cabinet being entire. This shell-fish is said to exist in 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and on the coast of the Southern States ; and has been found 

 in many places at the West, in and about the ancient works. At Portsmouth, 

 Ohio, six or seven were found buried in the soil, beneath the parallels of the great 

 work described in the Smithsonian Contributions. They were at a depth of twenty- 

 five feet in river alluvium. In Kentucky, the same shell has been frequently found, 

 adjacent to old walls and mounds. They were probably used by the ancient race 

 for religious and other ceremonies, as is said to be still the case among the Hindoos. 



PLATE VII. Fig. B. 



THREE MILES AND A HALF EAST OF PAINESVILLE, LAKE COUNTY, OHIO. 



This drawing represents a " stronghold" admirably situated for security and 

 resistance. A long, narrow, natural wall of slate, or shale rock, is left standing 

 between the creek and the river ; its direction east and west ; its elevation above 

 the water is from eighty to ninety feet ; and its faces as nearly perpendicular as the 

 soft shale will allow. Except at the western extremity, a person might leap from 

 the top to the bottom ; though it is so steep as to be absolutely inaccessible, with- 

 out ropes or bushes, or something by which to drag one's self up. The decomposing 

 shale, or " soapstone," is very sUppery, forming a greasy clay, always wet. The 

 distance is two hundred and thirty feet from the point A to the first parallel, which 

 is low, being only one and a half to two feet above the natural surface ; its ditch 

 about one foot deep, but like all the walls and ditches it varies at different points. 

 Just in rear of this wall the ground rises gently four or five feet, and thence the 

 plateau is nearly level for four hundred feet to the next parallel, and as far as a rise 

 of land about three hundred feet to the east, where the promontory joins the main 

 land. On each side back of the parallels are low bottom lands ; but from thence 

 forward to the point on the north is a water-washed blufi", and on the south a flat, 

 through which the creek wanders very irregularly. The Grand River is about two 

 chains wide, but fordable in ordinary stages. Over the whole promontory is a 

 thick growth of hemlock, causing a perpetual shade within the area of the work. 



The outer parallels at B are much stronger and better defined than the others, 

 ranging from eight to ten feet in height from the bottom of the ditch. They are not 

 straight or parallel, but irregular in direction as well as height, and are remarkably 

 well preserved. There is an appearance of slight openings, but I think them due 



