24 



the beauty of prospect, showing that this also had its influence as well 

 as the more utilitarian objects mentioned above. These latter struc- 

 tures were evidently chosen as burial places or as being suitable for 

 purposes ol observation and defense. Those occupying the alluvial 

 plains are usually more extensive in character and were undoubtedly 

 the seats of large towns. So well was their site chosen with reference 

 to the natural advantages of the country that most of them are 

 to-day covered with flourishing cities. In the words of Mr. E. 6. 

 Squier : 



"It is worthy of remark that the sites selected for settlements, towns 

 and cities, by the invading Europeans, are often those which were the 

 especial favorites of the mound-builders, and the seats of their heaviest 

 population. Marietta, Newark, Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Circleville and 

 Cincinnati, in Ohio ; Frankfort in Kentucky, and St. Louis in Missouri, 

 may be mentioned in confirmation of tliis remark. The centers of pop- 

 ulation are now where they were at the period when the mysterious race 

 of the mounds flourished."* 



GEOLOGY. 



The valley of Mad river, the chief tributary of the Great Miami, 

 presents a well-marked geographical region characterized by numerous 

 interesting topographical features. The main stream takes its rise but 

 a short distance south of the ridge which constitutes the divide be- 

 tween the waters flowing north to Lake Erie and those flowing 

 south to the Ohio, the upper part of the Scioto valley alone in- 

 tervening. The head of the stream lies east of Bellefontaine, in 

 Logan county, in the Huron shale where, according to President 

 Orton's report in the State Geological Survey (vol. I., page 454), 

 the source has an altitude of 1,438 feet above tide water, being an 

 elevation equal to that of any other in the State. In the upper 

 part of its course the bed of the river lies over the Corniferous 

 limestone and during its passage through the northeast part of Cham- 

 paign county it is underlain by the Helderberg limestone. For the 

 remainder of its course in Champaign county the river meanders 

 through a series of peat bogs and marshes which overlie the drift. In 

 this part of its course it is fed by numerous perennial springs which 

 give to the stream a permanent character even in the dryest seasons. 

 In the neighborhood of Urbana these springs are very numerous and 

 the supply of water they afford is practically inexhaustable. The 

 construction of the well for the Water- Works recently erected at Ur- 

 bana afibrds the following facts bearing upon this point: The well is 



=''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. 



