14 GKOLOGY OF OHIO. 



dependence upon the stream and its banks, for security in other directions, 

 and the partially excavated ditch within the ellipse, are well shown and 

 render further illustrations unnecessary. 



(d) SMALL ENCLOSURES, LODGE-SITES, ETC. 



Besides all these, there are many small, tolerably regular, circular, 

 square, and elliptical enclosures, found in nearly all portions of the State, 

 often on top of the highest hills. They are from fifty to two hundred feet 

 across, some scarcely traceable, others having an elevation of two or three 

 feet, with a breadth of five to ten times the height. There is but one 

 entrance way, on the east side in most, sometimes on the north or south, 

 very seldom on the west. In Plates III and V, they will be seen in con- 

 nection with the larger enclosures evidently forming a part of the system; 

 they also occur with other groups. With some, mounds are associated; 

 others are miles from the nearest aboriginal structures. The heavier 

 embankments frequently have an interior ditch; occasionally a mound 

 stands on the space thus enclosed, sometimes quite small, again taking up 

 nearly the whole area within the ditch. Skeletons have been exhumed 

 from such mounds. In a few instances a curved bank surrounds a square 

 center, the ditch varying in width to accommodate itself to both. 



In erecting council-houses, lodges, or even temporary wigwams, 

 Indians are accustomed to make a bank of earth like a circus ring around 

 the sides, to keep the floor dry and serve as a wind-break. Such may 

 have been the nature of these prehistoric works; they are not larger than 

 would be required for some Indian houses of recent times. The utility 

 of the ditch, however, is not apparent; nor is it a part of the modern 

 Indian's plan. The central mound would certainly exclude a number 

 from this category, unless it were erected after the building was destroyed 

 or abandoned. Some of them sufficiently resemble the large enclosures 

 to induce a belief in their creation for a similar purpose — whatever that 

 was. If the method of constructing dwellings along the top of an artifi- 

 cial ridge was ever in vogue, the low, broad embankments would be much 

 better adapted for such houses than the higher ones which have been 

 attributed to such intention ; they would be less subject to damage by 

 erosion, more easily kept in shape, less difficult to reach from the ground, 

 and sufficiently high to protect the floor from dampness by seepage from 

 the adjacent soil. If thus utilized, the ditch might form a reservoir 

 (many of them retain water nearly all the year), while the court would 

 answer for various public purposes. 



In the Scioto Valley, mostly at some distance from other remains, 

 are several excavations which have no counterpart elsewhere; they are 

 not properly enclosures, yet cannot be placed with anything else. On the 

 tnp of a low hill; near the edge of a terrace in bottom land; or in the 

 middle of a level field; — a circular hole has been dug and the earth 



