58 



salient angles; and at three different parts were the more regular re- 

 mains of something like bastions; the cavity was seventy yards in diam- 

 eter, N. W. and S. E., including the ruins of several terraces; the cir- 

 cumference of this singular place, including the angles, was four hundred 

 and twenty-four yards. Seven hundred yards S. S. E. of this was 

 another, resembling it in form and size ; and at an equal distance, E. S. 

 E. from the last, was a larger one, eleven hundred yards round, with sim- 

 ilar remains of bastions; this cavity would easily contain one thousand 

 people; its walls, if the word may be applied to them, are lofty, and 

 there is a deep ditch on the south side. In the area to the south I count- 

 ed six more of these elevations, each having a rude resemblance to the 

 other, with what also appeared to be a line of defence, connecting these 

 works with each other. At the northern end of this singular assemblage 

 of elevations, everything bears the appearance of rude artificial construc- 

 tion ; at the southern end, however, and not far from the river, the works 

 pass gradually into an irregular surface, a confused intermixing of cavi- 

 ties and knells, that might be satisfactorily attributed to the blowing of 

 sand.* There is a growth of oak timber, as Carver observes, upon all 

 this part of the elevations. All the angles and bastions are very much 

 rounded by the weather, and some of the slopes outside consist of sand 

 brought there by the wind. It is undoubtedly true that all the appear- 

 ances I have described may have been produced by the action of the 

 wind; but those who think so, after personal inspection, are bound to 

 account to themselves why other parts of this prairie, and of other 

 prairies similarly situated, are not blown up, and why the ground cover- 

 ed by these elevations is blown up in such a manner as to resemble arti- 

 ficial works so closely. If, when this curious place becomes more known 

 and investigated, Indian antiquities should be discovered commensurate 

 with the extent of the work, such as the stone instruments and weapons 

 of offence usually found about Indian encampments, it would decide 

 with me the question. If anything of that kind is there, it is probably 

 buried beneath the sands too deep for passing travellers to find. I 

 brought nothing away with me but a plan of the general appearance of 

 the locality, and one or two of the principal elevations.! 

 ='=It is sand prairie, covered with a foot or two of vegetable matter. 



tWe are through the courtesy of the War ^Department informed that ilie plans and 

 elevations, mentioned at the close of the above extract, are not on the files of the office 

 of the Chief of Engineers, and regret not to be able to reproduce them here for the bene- 

 fit of students of American archa?ology. 



