WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 



483 



by some violent inundation of the river. It is, at 

 least, certain, that the inscriptions upon both are of 

 the same kind, and there can be littlg doubt that they 

 have both been engraven at the same time. 



The town of Tomlinson, state of Ohio, is partly 

 built upon one of the square forts. Several mounds 

 are tob'eseen within a mile. Three of them, which 

 ^tand adjoining one another, are of superior height and 

 magnitude to those which are most commonly to be 

 met v;ith. In digging away the side of one of these, 

 in order to build a stable, many curious stojie imple- 

 ments v/ere found ; one resembled a syringe ; there 

 were also a pestle, stmie copper beads of an oval 

 fjhape, and several other articles. One of the mounds 

 in col. Bigg's garden was excavated in order to make 

 an ice house. It contained a vast number of human 

 bones, a variety of stone tools, and a kind of stone 

 signet of an oval shape, tv/o inches in length, with a 

 figure in relievo resem.bling a note of admiration, 

 surrounded by two raised rims. Captain Wilson ob- 

 ^:erved that if was exactly the figure of the brand 

 Y/ith which the Mexican horses were marked.* 

 One of the mounds was surrounded by a regular ditch 

 and parapet with only one entrance. The tumulus 

 was about twelve f»?et high, and the parapet five. 

 ' The Big Grave^'' as it is called, is a most as- 

 tonishing mound. We measured the perpendicular 

 height, and it was sixty-seven feet and a half. Its 

 j;ides are quite steep. The diameter of the top is fifty- 

 five feet: but the apex seems to have caved in ; Tor 



* -Thir, sin^^ular marking stone, is now deposited in Mr. Turell's 

 cabinet of curiosities iaEoston, 



