16 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



example of such industry. Figure 1 from the original drawing repro- 

 duced in various archaeological works, has always been taken as a correct 

 representation. In Plate X are given a plan and sections from a recent 

 survey. The error and exaggeration of the figure will be apparent at 

 once. In itself, the work is of no special importance or interest; but the 

 perverted accounts of it have done much toward impressing the reading 

 public with erroneous ideas regarding the people who are credited with 

 its formation. 



The depression is not in any degree artificial, but is due entirely to 

 erosion, being a former cut-off or thoroughfare of Beaver Creek. It does 

 not rise to the level of the upper terrace, but continues with a slight 

 grade to the bank of that stream, in a curved line, growing wider as it 

 proceeds. The bottom at the narrowest part measures 120 feet across, 

 whereas the greatest base measure of either wall is sixty-nine feet. 

 Instead of the whole work being 1,080 feet in length, as stated, the 

 depression is 2,225 feet, one wall 636 feet, and the other 761 feet along 

 the top. The elevation of the terrace is twenty feet, not seventeen, 

 while neither wall is more than nine and one half feet at any point and 

 only a few rods of it is oyer six feet high. Instead of gradually tapering 

 to a point, the west wall when viewed from the south end more resembles 

 an ordinary mound. The earth composing them was not thrown up 

 from below, but was gathered on the surface and deposited along the 

 break of the depression, a portion of it being allowed to fall down the sides 

 to make a steeper slope. Both walls change direction at more than one 

 point, and so far from extending its entire length on the upper terrace, 

 the east wall descends into the depression and terminates near its bottom. 



(/.) EFFIGY MOUNDS. 



In several states are mounds presenting a rude outline of some 

 animal. They are almost invariably made of earth, though occasionally 

 one is of stone. By far the greater number is found in the north-west, 

 especially in Iowa and Wisconsin, where they exist by thousands. The 

 human figure as well as that of many species of quadrupeds and birds 

 have been recognized, generally by persons who are not expert zoologists. 

 They are frequently, and it may be correctly, called emblematic or sym- 

 bolic structures; "effigy" is, perhaps, a safer term, 



Ohio possesses several of these figures, only two of which really 

 resemble anything. First, and above all others for its size and striking 

 appearance, is the Great Serpent of Adams county. With its head at the 

 end of a narrow point, jutting out over Brush Creek bottoms, restricted by 

 a perpendicular cliff on one side and a deep ravine on the other, the emgy 

 winds its contorted body along the surface for a quarter of a mile. The 

 front part of the figure, which lies on sloping ground, has been partially 

 effaced by denudation, and was overlooked by earlier visitors, as may be 

 seen in Plate XI, from the original survey. In this the ellipse is greatly 



