occupied by the small lakes, to the ancient shores of lakes Ontario and Erie. They are mostly of regular forms,-oblong, circular, triangular, or elliptical,—generally overgrown with large forest trees, and placed near streams or other bodies of water. With one doubtful exception, none have been found between the ancient beaches of Lakes Erie and Ontario and their present shores, though many of them run parallel with the former line of the lakes, a circumstance favoring the idea of their high antiquity.* On the south side of lake Erie there is a series of these fortifications or enclosures extending, at intervals of a few miles, as far as the Pennsylvania boundary line; nor do they terminate there, but in that state also they occur in great numbers, to the westward of the Alleghany ridge, and are of a similar character with those just described, possessing no marks of peculiar difference.†

In the western part of Virginia, these traces of the ancients may also be observed, particularly in that region which borders on the tributaries of the Ohio, and upon the low grounds of the Elk, Guyandot and Kenhawa rivers. Near Wheeling there are appearances of fortifications or enclosures, commencing in the vicinity of the mounds upon Grave creek, and continuing at intermediate distances for ten or twelve miles along the banks of the Ohio. They consist of square and circular entrenchments communicating with each other, of ditches, walls and mounds, and a broad causeway leading from the largest enclosure towards the neighboring hills.||

*Clinton's Memoir on the Antiquities of the Western part of New-York. † Arch. Amer., vol. i. p. 309. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., vol. vi. p. 134. § Ibid. vol. iii. p. 215. Silliman's Journal, vol. vi. p. 166.

Passing further to the south and into the state of Georgia, upon the banks of Little river, a branch of the Savannah, not far from the town of Wrightsborough, "many very magnificent monuments of the power and industry of the ancient inhabitants" have been remarked by an intelligent traveller.* They consist of a stupendous conical pyramid, vast tetragon terraces, and a large sunken or excavated area of a cubical form, encompassed with banks of earth, and also traces of an extensive

town.

Upon the east bank of the Ocmulgee river, eighty miles above its confluence with the Oconee, upon the heights of the low grounds, are vestiges of an ancient town, such as artificial mounts or terraces, squares, and embankments encircling considerable areas.

On the west bank of the Altamaha, nearly opposite to Darien,† are the remains of an ancient earthen structure. It is a regular tetragon terrace four feet high, with bastions at each angle, and surrounded with a ditch enclosing about an acre of ground.

On the Savannah river, just above Petersburgh, upon a level plain near the bank of the river, are other ruins, consisting of several mounds and four square terraces. The largest mound is conical, fifty feet high, eight hundred feet in circumference at the base, and its summit is truncated. A spiral path leads to the top, and there are four niches excavated out of the sides, at different heights, and fronting the cardinal points. Several mounds of inferior dimensions are disposed around it, and also

* Bartram's Travels, p. 37.

† Ibid. p. 52.

+ Ibid. p. 323.

some terraces, three hundred feet square and from six to ten feet high.*

On the Chattahooche, upon a peninsula formed by the doubling of the river, there are mounds and enormous quadrangular terraces; in front of one of the latter is an extensive square enclosure surrounded with an earthen wall.†

Upon the Etowah river is an excavation which sweeps in a large section of land, by bending towards the water in the form of a semi-circle; there are no embankments, and the entrances to the interior are made by interruptions of the excavated ditch, at certain regular intervals.‡

Many other groups of similar ruins occur in this state and in Alabama, and they seem to present a continuation of those existing in Florida, connecting them, in a northerly course, with the ancient remains in Tennessee and Ohio.§

Florida abounds in these relics of antiquity. Near Lake George formerly stood a large mound; and in its vicinity were fields appearing to have been anciently cultivated, and also oak, palm, and orange groves. From this mound, two parallel walls, fifty yards asunder, led in a straight line to the verge of an oblong artificial lake distant three quarters of a mile.||

Upon one of the islands of Lake George, are the remains of

*Bartram's Travels, p. 31.

Silliman's Journal, vol. i. p. 322.

† Ibid. p. 388.

§ "I was informed, by a gentleman in Tennessee, of the existence of a singular and antique stone fort on the summit of a mountain, in Franklin county, Alabama, near Little Bear Creek, a tributary of Tennessee river-but have never read any notice of it."-Latrobe's Ramb. in N. Amer., vol. ii. p. 179.

Bartram's Travels, p. 97.

a large town and a pyramidal mound, from which there proceeds in a straight line to a large, green, level savanna, a highway, formed of parallel walls resembling those just described; fragments of earthenware, bones, and other remains abound in the neighborhood.* Near New Smyrna similar remains have been observed;† and monuments of the same character, often connected with artificial ponds or lakes, are to be perceived from the river St. John to the southern coast of Florida, in great numbers and of various dimensions,—exhibiting, by their frequency and extent, all the signs of having been constructed by a populous nation.

Having thus rapidly traversed the eastern boundary line of these earthen structures, upon turning to the west we find them in greater numbers, and of a more extraordinary character. Near Salem, Ashtabula county, Ohio, about three miles from Lake Erie, upon the Coneaught river, is an enclosure situated upon a hill, and surrounded with two concentric circular walls, a ditch intervening between them.§ There is but one gateway, and from this a road leads to the water; within the walls, earthenware and skeletons were found, and the whole place is covered with a thick growth of trees.

At Marietta, within the city limits, some years since, there were two large, oblong enclosures, and a conical mound; the largest of the enclosures contained forty, and the other twenty acres of ground.|| They were encompassed by ramparts of earth, from six to ten feet high, and thirty feet in breadth at the base, and on each side were three gateways, at equal

* Bartram's Travels, p. 101.

+ Ibid. 519.

p.

† Ibid. p. 142.

§ Arch. Amer. vol. i. p. 124.

|| Description of the Ohio River.--Harris's Tour, p. 149.

distances apart. A sort of covert way, formed of two parallel walls, two hundred and thirty-one feet apart, defended the approach to the Muskingum; the walls were forty-two feet wide at the base, twenty-one feet high within, and five feet high on the outer sides. A line of smaller parallel walls leads down to the water from the corner of the fortification. Within the area enclosed, at the north-west corner, was an oblong terrace, nine feet high; at the middle of each of its sides the earth. was projected, forming gradual ascents to the top, ten feet in width. Near the south wall was another terrace, nearly similar; at the south-east corner was another; about the middle was a circular elevation; and at the south-west corner was a semicircular parapet, covered with a mound, which guarded the gateway or entrance in that quarter.

The other enclosure had a gateway in the middle of each side, and at the corners was defended by circular mounds. A short distance from its south-east side was a conical mound, one hundred and fifteen feet in diameter, thirty feet high, and surrounded by a ditch and embankment, through which there was a gateway opening towards the fortification. The mound was protected in addition by outworks, and parapets, and other mounds. There were also found here excavations,-originally of great size and depth,―still perceptible; which were probably wells, and supplied the inhabitants with water. Upon a branch of the same river, ninety miles from Marietta, a series of works, consisting of entrenchments and mounds, extended about two miles in length, and the ramparts and mounds were of much greater height than those at Marietta.*

Near Newark, in Licking county, another extensive succes

* Description of the Ohio River, p. 19.-Colum. Mag., May, 1787.