SCIENTIFIC N»\VS. 271 



Ancient Works in America., resembling Fortifications.*- 



The artificial works, best known by the name of fortifica- Ancient works 

 tions, are daily discovered, in great numbers, and many of "^ meiica. 

 them of vast extent, in various parts of the Ur.ited-Stutes, par- 

 ticularly in the fertile countries adjacent to the rivers Ohio 

 and Missisippi, and their branches. In some of the tumuli, or 

 barrows, connected with these works, copper i:n{)lements, of 

 different kinds, have been found. So tnnt there can be no 

 doubt that the people who formed, or who possessed, these 

 works, were acquainted with the use of copper. But how 

 far this metal was in general use among them, we are not yet ' 

 prepared to determine. This point, however, may be deter- 

 mined, at some future period. 



Bishop Madison's ingenious speculations concerning the de- 

 sign of the works alluded to,! have induced some persons t© 

 suppose, that they were never intended to serve the purposes of 

 fortifications. But for whatever purposes they were used, it is 

 Certain, that these works could never have been constructed bj 

 a people in the state of society in which the Europeans found 

 the Indian inhabitants of the tracts of country in which the 

 supposed fortifications are so abundantly distributed : and we 

 seem to proceed with entire safety in asserting, that they must 

 have been constructed by tribes, or nations, who were extreme- 

 ly numerous. 



The Rev. Mr. Harris, of Massachusetts, has lately favoured 

 the public with some additional observations concerning the 

 design of these works, and concerning the people by whom 

 they were erected. I But this gentleman's hypothesis on the 

 latter subject is not, in any essential respect, different from 



* From Barton's Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. 

 Vol. ii. 1805. 



t A Letter on the supposed Fortifications of the Western coun- 

 try, from Bishop Madison, of Virginia, to Dr. Barton. See Trans- 

 actions of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. vi. Part 1. 

 No. 26. 



X Journal of a Tour into the Territory North- West of the Alleg- 

 haney Mountains, made in ihc Spring of the year 1803, &c. &c. 

 Boston: 1805. 



that 



