480 



t>NITED STATES. 



taken, in their natural position, of a man buried 

 nearly east and west, with a quantity of ising-gla^s* 

 on his breast. In others the bones laid promiscu- 

 ously, some of them appeared partly burnt and cal- 

 cined by lire : stores evidently burnt, charcoal, ar- 

 row-heads, and fragments of a kind of earthen ware, 

 were also found. ' 



It is w^orthy of remark, that the walls and mounds 

 were not thrown up from ditches, but raised by bring- 

 ing the earth from some distance, or taking it up uni- 

 formly from the surface of the plain. The parapets 

 w^ere probably made of equal height ,and breadth-, 

 but the waste of time has rendered them lower and 

 broader, in some parts than others. 



It is in vain to conjecture, what tools or machines 

 were employed in the construction of these works ; 

 but there is no reason to suppose, that any of the 

 implements were of iron. Plates of copper have 

 been found in some of the mounds, but they appear 

 to be parts of armour. Nothing that would answer 

 the purpose of a shovel^ has ever been discovei ed. 

 Adverting to this circumstance, how astonishing 

 must be the constancy and patience necessary to 

 endure the tediousness, and overcome the dilTi- 

 culty, of' such labours, and succeed in spite of the 

 unfitness of the instruments that were employed. 



At the icommencement of the settlement, the 

 works were covered with a prodigious growth of. 

 trees. Judging from the concentric circles, each 

 of which is known to denote an annual growth, 

 the age of one tree, felled for the purpose, was de- 



Mica membranacea. 



