154 INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. [CHAP. XXXI. 



about 300 yards diameter at the top, and 100 yards at the bot 

 tom, where cypresses and gum-trees are growing. At the top 

 are seen the cotton-wood, the maple, and the magnolia, mixed 

 with pines. 



The name of Natchez has been derived from an Indian tribe, 

 and on the highest part of the bluff, on an eminence called St. 

 Rosalie, are some Indian mounds, from which Dr. Dickeson has 

 obtained some curious remains of pottery, showing that some of the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the great valley had made much greater 

 progress in the arts than their descendants whom the Europeans 

 drove out. One morning, close to the spot where these antiqui 

 ties were dug up, we saw a wild-looking group of Indians, whose 

 aspect gave no token that their contact with Europeans had 

 tended to revive the spirit of improvement which must once have 

 animated some of their predecessors in this region. 



