214 Ancient Linear Measures. 



things described in books and museums, which has in other ways 

 been curiously confirmed. It is even a unit of measure for the 

 stone tablet itself. This mound inch is shorter than the English 

 inch, in the proportion of 10 to 12 ; and it is evident that the 

 mound foot was one divided into 12 inches, for the tablet itself is 

 exactly 6 of its own standard inches in length, i.e., doubtless half a 

 foot, »nd exactly 3 inches in width at the middle or narrower part 

 and 3 J across the wider ends. In Dr. C. Abbott's "Primitive 

 Industry of America," Fig. 356, p. 375, there is figured and des- 

 cribed what is called a " Slickstone " ; and noticing a number of 

 small notches (about 8 or 10 to an inch) on it, I tried the length, 

 and found it to be 6 J inches loDg, but with a large corrective 

 notch right across near one end, at precisely the 6-inch length. 

 With often equal success I applied this, my mound-builder's foot- 

 rule, to many objects described by Squier and Davis, and in Dr. 

 Abbott's book more particularly, which I have no space at pres- 

 ent to go farther into, but refer to Figs. 142, 192, 195, 362— par- 

 ticularly to Fig. 365, p. 388, a fish totem measure, of exactly 1 

 mound foot in length and nearly 3 inches in breadth. Also see Fig. 

 43, p. 71, representing a flattish stone of about 7 x 3J- inches, 

 whereon are scratched a series of 15 small notches, exactly — \\ 

 mound inch, showing a decimal division, with four other larger 

 notches, showing some other inch. It would appear, then, that 

 the length of the mound-builder's foot was precisely 10 inches 

 English = -254 metre, and that there would be 7 mound inches 

 to 6 Mexican inches. Entirely independently of my own results 

 I have since found in Dr. Brinton's pamphlet, p. 11, " Colonel 

 C. Whittesley of Cleveland, in 1883, analysed 87 measure- 

 ments of these mound earth-works by the method of even divi- 

 sion, and concluded that 30 inches (English) was about the 

 length or was one of the multiples of their metrical standard," — 

 thus indirectly cod firming my own discovery that the mound foot 

 of 12 inches was precisely =10 English inches, at least so far 

 that 30 is a multiple of 10. From about 200 mound measure- 

 ments, I have found that 25 English, or 30 mound, feet are a proba- 

 ble standard unit for large measurements. Squier and Davis 

 mention prehistoric North American garden plots 12J English 

 feet wide, which would =15 or - 3 g°- mound feet. 



Incidentally, I have also reason for supposing that the mound- 



