﻿The Deer creek Mound. 



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the view could be realized if it could not be carefully noted. The smoke 

 of trains, to the north, on the Muskingham Valley Railroad, distant about 

 fifteen miles, could be easily seen, and thus the progress of the trains back 

 and forth, from east to west, discerned for over an hour. The level 

 country still further away and beyond the railroad, thickly crowded with 

 trees extending for miles, beautifully bounded the horizon. The view 

 from the summit of this mound, situated as it is in on a peninsular bluff, 

 extends for miles to the west, north, northeast, east, and southeast. Mount 

 Logan, near Chillicothe, about ten miles away, is visible, as also the range 

 of hills extending northward to the east of the Scioto River. Mention has 

 been made of this wide range of view, because of the fact, that a theory 

 exists, that the mounds were used as places to build signal fires upon, in 

 order to quickly carry alarm over a wide extent of country — a species of 

 telegraphing which has been used by many nations, and even within a few 

 centuries in Scotland. This has been very strikingly portrayed by Sir 

 Walter Scott in his novel, " The Antiquary." It may, however, not be 

 out of place to remark, that on the mound, at present considered, no evi- 

 dences were discovered which would warrant the conclusion that it was 

 over the seat of a single fire. Clay is noted for its baking properties, and 

 although the summit had been disturbed and become the place of burial 

 by some later inhabitants, still, evidences of a large fire in situ were en- 

 tirely wanting. 



The natural curve of the original stratum of soil, on which the mound 

 rested, was slightly convex ; sloping more rapidly and decidedly toward 

 the side by the bluff, making it rather difficult to decide in that direction 

 just where the mound ended and the original soil began. The measure- 

 ments, as near as we could determine, were : circumference^ 361 feet and 

 a few inches; diameter, 115 feet; height, 33 feet. Calculations from 

 these figures show that the area covered by the base of the mound was, 

 10,384J square feet, and the entire amount of earth used in its construc- 

 tion was 114,229^ cubic feet. The mound was conical in structure, with 

 a circular base, and the slope of the sides was about thirty degrees. Ex- 

 ternally, the work seemed to be in an extraordinary state of preservation. 

 The sides were steep, and what was to be especially noted, were not washed 

 here and there into furrows and ridges by the action of rains and water. 

 The roots of the immense trees and old decayed stumps had displaced the 

 earth to a very limited extent, immediately about the point where they 

 entered and buried themselves in the mound. An excavator had dug a 

 hole in the north side, about half way up the mound and at a slight angle, 

 to the depth of about eight feet. This was quite recent, and the man who 



