,, LORAIN COUNTY. 293, 
were used in connection with specular ore from Lake Superior, but lately 
the use of the native ores has been discontinued. 
ANCIENT EARTH-WORKS. 
Mounds and embankments made by the ancient inhabitants of the 
country are found in several places in Lorain county, two of which will 
be briefly noticed here. The best-preserved “fortifications” in the county 
are on the land of RB. Burrell, Esq., in the angle formed by the union of 
French and Sugar Creeks, in Sheffield township. The valleys of these 
two streams are quite deeply excavated, and inclose a narrow triangle of 
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high land at their junction, which is bounded by cliffs of shale 45 feet 
in height and almost perpendicular. Across the base of this triangle, at 
the distances respectively of 350 and 278 feet from the apex, are two deep, 
parallel trenches, each 135 feet long, reaching across from bluff to bluff. 
Mr. Burrell states that when the land was first cleared, in 1816, these 
trenches were eight feet deep. They have been plowed over from year 
to year since, but are quite plainly discernible. The purpose of these 
trenches was evidently to defend from attack a village or citadel situated 
