ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Tue EARTHWORKS OF “ Fort Axcent.” —On the 16th of June, 
1869, I found myself in the neighborhood of the famous ‘Fort 
Ancient,” on the little Miami River, some four miles above the 
town of Morrow in Warren County, Ohio; and as a day’s leisure 
was left me I determined to visit these interesting remains of the 
prehistoric tribes of America. The following notes additional to 
those made by previous visitors may be of interest. With a 
tracing in my hand of the survey of Dr. Locke, as given in the 
first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions, I ascended the road 
leading eastward from the railroad station and entered the fortifi- 
cations at a point which is said to have been an original outlet, 
but which has been so enlarged for the use of the present roadway 
that its original facing is now gone. The excavation thus made 
has revealed a section which shows that the earthwork was orig- 
inally begun by building an exterior retaining wall, two to four 
feet high, of flat stones. 
The outer parapet of the fort was now followed by me with 
great faithfulness entirely around the enclosure. Descent was 
made into each and every ravine, and the whole examined as care- 
fully as was possible for one person to do in about five hours ; it 
will be remembered that twelve persons were occupied two days 
in making the survey published by Dr. Locke. 
The principal new features that I noted may be summed up as 
follows : 
1. The retaining wall above mentioned. 
2. Certain outlets, twelve in number, are not for drainage 
purposes. On the contrary, they invariably have on the inside a 
raised pathway crossing the interior ditches and connecting the 
outlet with the interior of the fort, and on the other hand they 
open exteriorly not into a ravine, but upon the crests of ridges 
dividing two ravines. 
3. The breaks in the continuity of the parapet may therefore 
be divided into two classes. First, the just mentioned actual 
gateways opening out upon crests of ridges, and second, sluices 
for drainage— whence many of the small streams take their rise. 
~ The engraving given by Dr. Locke, therefore needs correction 
_ in these particulars. (769) 
