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great Valley of the Mississippi, was inhabited in ancient 
times by a comparatively dense population, who subsisted 
by the arts of husbandry, as well as by the chase, is evident | 
from the numerous depositories of the dead in the caves and - 
along the banks of the streams in the fertile valleys, and - 
around the cool springs which abound in this limestone re- 
gion, and from the imposing monumental remains and exten- 
sive earthworks. 
A considerable portion of the city of Nashville has been. 
built over an extensive Indian graveyard,* which lay along 
the valley of Lick Branch. A large portion of these graves | 
have on removed i in the boilding of North Nashville. In. 
and obtained a small stone hatchet, and another implement - 
of hard, silicious stone, beautifully polished. This stone 
implement is supposed to have been used in the dressing of | 
hides. All around the sulphur spring, traces of the aborigi- | 
nes are manifest in the form of Gansiinis of large pots and 
various implements. It is supposed that this salt lick was 
frequented by the Indians for game and the manufacture of ; 
salt. 
Extensive fortifications, several miles in extent, enclosi 
two systems of mounds and numerous stone graves, lie along 
the Big oe about sixteen miles below Old Town, at at 
t rectly 
across from the sont of Lick Branch and another about one and a half m lower 
down; another at Cockrill’s Spring, two an miles from the Sulphur Spring; 
another six d from Nashville on the (iion Pike, and still aries ie at Hayes- 
ous stone graves are also found on White's Creek, on the Dick 
Pike, nine i from Nashville, and at Sycamore, twenty-two miles ^r Nashville, 
on the plantation of Colonel Overton, an and around 
Springs, and on the plantation of Mr.Scales. Extensive Indian 



an Rivers, as A 
plantation of General ‘DeGraffenreid, two and a half miles above Franklin, numerous 
stone graves are found within an extensive 


