ANTIQUITIES,—BOOK II. 
189 
the large one on the Cahokia. I saw it last summer: it has a step 
or apron, and is surrounded by a group of ten or twelve other 
mounds of a smaller size. In the vicinity of New Madrid, 
there are a number; one on the bank of a lake, is at least four 
hundred yards in circumference, and surrounded by a ditch at 
least ten feet wide, and at present, five feet deep; it is about for¬ 
ty feet in height, and level on the top. I have frequently ex¬ 
amined the mounds at St. Louis: they are situated on the se¬ 
cond bank just above the town, and disposed in a singular man¬ 
ner; there are nine in all, and form three sides of a parallelo¬ 
gram, the open side towards the country, being protected, how¬ 
ever, by three smaller mounds, placed in a circular manner. The 
space enclosed is about four hundred yards in length, and two 
hundred in breadth. About six hundred yards above there is a 
single mound, with a broad stage on the river side; it is thirty 
feet in height, and one hundred and fifty in length; the top is a 
mere ridge of five or six feet wide. Below the first mounds 
there is a curious work, called the Falling Garden. Advantage 
is taken of the second bank, nearly fifty feet in height at this 
place, and three regular stages or steps, are formed by earth 
brought from a distance. This work is much admired—it sug¬ 
gests the idea of a place of assembly for the purpose of coun¬ 
selling, on public occasions. The following diagram may con¬ 
vey a more precise idea. 
A—The three sides of a 
parallelogram. 
B—The single mound. 
C—The Falling-garden. 
In tracing the origin of institutions or inventions amongst 
men, we are apt to forget, that nations, however diversified by 
manners and languages, are yet of the same species, and that the 
same institutions may originate amongst twenty different people. 
Adair takes great pains to prove a similarity of customs between 
