8 ANCIENT WORKS IN OHIO. VII. 



PLATE II. 



ANCIENT WORK, NEAR TODD'S FORK, WARREN COUNTY, OHIO. 



This sketch exhibits very little that is different from the works commonly 

 seen in Ohio, and heretofore described, except the raised part, D, which is analo- 

 gous to the effigy-mounds described by Dr. Locke, Mr. Taylor, and others, in the 

 north-west. The land had been some years under cultivation (1839), and possibly 

 the full figure was wanting; but, as it was when surveyed, the resemblance to an 

 animal or even a monster was not very striking. If the semblance of legs had been 

 seen on the eastern side, it would be easy to imagine it intended for a living crea- 

 ture, or a caricature of one ; but even then, what animal the constructors wished to 

 exhibit would be very doubtful. The western edge is the highest, being four feet, 

 and the eastern about two feet. At i, is a small mound within the boundary of the 

 figure, D. 



The wall of the rectangular part of C, is low, and without ditches. The semicircle 

 or " sickle," B, has a wall a little heavier, being two feet high by twenty broad, and 

 is better defined. The more northerly of the two segments of small circles, E, with 

 wide openings, is partially obliterated. 



At n, is a very distinct road, or graded way, from the plain of the work down to 

 the river bottom, a descent of about twenty feet, and steeper than is usual with the 

 roads of the mound-builders. 



The embankments at A are low and narrow, but distinct. It is very seldom that 

 lines of embankment descend to the first bottom, as is the case at the north-east 

 corner of the part, C. M is a small mound. 



The pits a, a, a, are evidently artificial ; but are not capacious enough to have 

 furnished much earth for the walls, and there are no excavations in the vicinity 

 from which the material of these appear to have been taken. 



With the high limestone bluff overlooking it on the south, and in the absence of 

 ditches, this work can hardly be considered as one of a military kind. The river 

 is everywhere fordable, and the walls in their best days were slight. 



The survey was made under circumstances that did not allow of a minute mea- 

 surement of all parts of the work. Some of the details are given from an eye 

 sketch, and this obstructed occasionally by a snow-storm. 



It is situated about six miles below the great fortification, described in Smith- 

 sonian Contributions to Knowledge, I. 18, PI. 7. 



The great number of remains on the Little Miami, between this work and the 

 mouth of the river, indicate a very dense population, in the days of the mound- 

 builders. 



