20 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



Nor is the absence of human remains to be considered an indication, 

 unless otherwise substantiated, that they were constructed for some other 

 purpose; for conditions are frequent in which, although the character 

 and disposition of relics found are such as invariably mark those deposi- 

 ted with a corpse, all traces of bone have disappeared. There are many, 

 however, which present not the slightest evidence of ever having been 

 used or intended for mortuaries; and no hypothesis yet advanced con- 

 cerning their purpose is satisfactory. The flat-topped ones have been 

 referred to above. Those on high points are usually called signal mounds 

 from an idea that fires were built on them as semaphores, the ashes often 

 found in them being adduced as proof of such use. But skeletons with 

 relics have been found in such mounds; in situations so exposed wind 

 and rain would prevent the accumulation of ashes due to occasional fires ; 

 there could be no reason for piling a quantity of earth over the spot used 

 for this purpose; to increase by a few feet the elevation of a point which 

 already commanded an extensive view, would be of no advantage; ashes 

 are found in as great quantities in many mounds on low land as in those 

 on hill-tops; finally, a pile of damp leaves and trash which would make a 

 column of dense smoke, and leave few traces of their use, would serve 

 better than any quantity of large wood. The mound on Mt. Logan, 

 opposite Chillicothe, so often mentioned as composed nearly altogether 

 of ashes from signal fires, was found on examination to contain only a 

 relatively small amount, being mostly of earth, and containing human 

 remains. 



Fires were also maintained for other purposes than as signals. Near 

 Ivinnville, Licking county, on elevated land, is a group consisting of one 

 stone and three earth mounds. From one of the latter, originally eigh- 

 teen feet high, eight feet of the upper portion was cut off. Almost from 

 the top the earth was burned to a deep red, small masses being glazed or 

 even vitrified; flint fragments the size c f a brick resembled pieces of 

 chalk, the result of intense heat. Numerous holes filled with charcoal 

 and ashes, showed plainly by their regularity, and the marks on the sides, 

 they were casts of upright posts or logs, some of them a foot in diameter. 

 These were first noticed three or four feet above the point at which the 

 explorers ceased to work; several of them were followed as far below 

 that level as the shovels would reach, without coming to the bottom. 

 They must have formed only a small part of the material necessary to 

 convert so great a mass of earth almost into the condition of a brick-kiln; 

 their vertical position shows the earth was piled around and above them 

 before they w T ere burned, somewhat after the manner of a charcoal pit 

 It was plain that a fire was kept continuously burning here for a consid- 

 erable period, perhaps several days ; but for what reason is not apparent. 

 Certainty it was not as a "signal," although the mound is visible for 

 several miles from d fferent directions. 



With reference to all earth mounds except " effigies, : ' it seems best 

 for the present to describe them simply bj r their situation, shape, and 



