LORAIN COUNTY. 



223 



were used in connection with specular ore from Lake Superior, but lately 

 the use of the native ores has been discontinued. 



ANCIENT EARTH-WORKS. 



Mounds and embankments made by the ancient inhabitants of the 

 country are found in several places in Lorain county, two of which will 

 be briefly noticed here. The best-preserved " fortifications " in the county 

 are on the land of R. Burrell, Esq., in the angle formed by the union of 

 French and Sugar Creeks, in Sheffield township. The valleys of these 

 two streams are quite deeply excavated, and inclose a narrow triangle of 



high land at their junction, which is bounded by cliffs of shale 45 feet 

 in height and almost perpendicular. Across the base of this triangle, at 

 the distances respectively of 350 and 278 feet from the apex, are two deep, 

 parallel trenches, each 185 feet long, reaching across from bluff to bluff. 

 Mr. Burrell states that when the land was first cleared, in 1816, these 

 trenches were eight feet deep. They have been plowed over from year 

 to year since, but are quite plainly discernible. The purpose of these 

 trenches was evidently to defend from attack a village or citadel situated 



