Stratification of Diluvium. 



169 



viatile action. To say nothing of their great number and size, which 

 would render their construction a work of ages for all the millions 

 of the globe, there is one fact stated by an acute writer, that must put 

 the question at rest. He says that he " had never examined one that 

 was not composed of different strata of earth, invariably lying hori- 

 zontally to the very edge of the mound."* Now I take it upon me 

 to say, that it is altogether beyond the art of man to pile up large 

 hills of loam, sand, clay, &c. so as to exhibit the stratified structure 

 here spoken of. Lot any man but examine the alluvial or tertiary 

 banks of a river having a stratified structure, and he will at once see 

 that human skill can never imitate this work of water. These 

 mounds, therefore, scattered as they are in immense numbers over 

 the western regions, are the w r ork of God and not of man. They 

 were either piled up by diluvial action, or they are remnants of ter- 

 tiary formations, that have been mostly removed by rains, land floods, 

 and deluges. We have an abundance of just such mounds in New 

 England, which need only a lively fancy to convert into the products 

 of a once mighty and highly civilized people. The southeastern 

 part of Massachusetts abounds with hills of this description. In the 

 more central parts of the State they are less common. Yet the trav- 

 eler will frequently meet with elevations of this kind, which viewed 

 in certain directions are regular cones. Such examples may be seen 

 in Franklin and its vicinity. One occurs a mile or two east of the 

 meeting house in Enfield, on the banks of a small stream : and a 

 similar one may be seen in Deerfield, at the foot of Long Hill, two 

 miles south of the village. In making the road, one half this mound 

 has been dug away, so as to exhibit its horizontal strata. Others may 

 be seen on the stage road between Belchertown and Ware. That 

 such elevations should have been selected, both in New England and 

 at the west, for the habitations, the forts, and the burying places of 

 the aboriginals, is just what we might expect. And this circumstance 

 has doubtless given rise to the idea that these mounds are artificial 

 Nor will the belief that we can point to monuments of human skill 

 more ancient than the pyramids of Egypt, be likely to receive a very 

 strict scrutiny, or be easily abandoned. 



Stratification of Diluvium. 

 Though in this formation the materials be confusedly mingled to- 



* Illinois Magazine Vol. I. p. 252. 



22 



