semicircular, the ends reaching to the water, and the whole line. extending about a mile.*

In the town of Jefferson, west from Milwaulkee, on the west branch of Rock river, are the ruins of an extensive walled city, with a number of mounds or tumuli in the immediate vicinity. The form of that part examined is oblong, and its area is surrounded with the dilapidated remains of a brick wall, one quarter of a mile in extent, and now crumbled to the earth. The brick appears to be like that made at the present day with the exception of its possessing a lighter color, and the wall is covered with vegetable matter, and completely overgrown with verdure. Its remains are now twenty-three feet wide at the base, and four or five high, the wall having originally been much higher and narrower, but being now spread out by decay; the vestiges of buttresses projecting, at regular intervals, seventeen feet beyond its line, are still perceptible. At the north-west and south-west corners of the enclosure, upon the exterior, are two semicircular groups of mounds, their respective heights varying from three to twenty-five feet; at the same corners, on the inner side of the enclosure, are two square elevated plains or terraces, fifteen feet high, one of them accessible by a stairway. Upon the eastern side, towards the margin of the river, two other terraces appear; and about the middle of the eastern wall, at the water's edge, is the termination of a sewer, three feet below the surface, and arched with stone. An elevated ridge of earth connecting two of the terraces, parallel walls running north and south through the interior of the fort, and the remains of a cellar,

* Carver's Travels, p. 45.-Pike's Expedition, p. 18.

complete the description of these interesting ruins so far as they have yet been examined.*

In the state of Illinois, three miles above the Vermillion river, upon an elevated cliff on the left bank of the Illinois. river, is Rock fort. The summit of the hill is level, contains about three quarters of an acre, and is covered with soil and young trees. Here is a regular entrenchment, corresponding in its course with the edge of the precipice; and within this are other excavations, covered with trees. Upon this spot have been found broken muscle shells, fragments of antique pottery, and stones which have been subjected to the action of heat, resembling lava.† Between this place and Mount Joliet, are the ancient sites of several old villages; one, on the top of Buffalo rock, and another, in a plain, have been completely encompassed by a ditch and wall, the remains of which are still conspicuous, and the extent of their lines easily traced.

In Gasconade county, Missouri, are the ruins of an ancient town, regularly laid out, in streets and squares; the remains of some of the houses still exist, and foundations of stone are found in different parts of the area. Another stone work is situated about sixteen miles distant from this, which appears to have been constructed with great regularity.‡ Upon Buffalo Creek and the Osage river, ruins of similar stone buildings may be observed, evincing a superior degree of architectural skill. One, at Noyer Creek, has been more particularly described. It presents the dilapidated remnants of a building constructed of rough, unhewn stone, fifty-six feet long and

*N. F. Hyer's Account.

Beck's Gazetteer, p. 234.

+ Schoolcraft's Mississippi, p. 320.

§ Ibid. p. 306.

twenty-two broad. The walls are from two to five feet high, enclosing a semicircular, a square, and two oblong chambers. The oblong apartments were roofed with the arch of receding inverted steps, and the semicircular chamber contained several human bones. Eighty rods east from this building was another, of smaller dimensions and of similar construction, and having a circular apartment between two oblong ones, without any intercommunication.

Upon a low plain, on the south side of the Missouri river, opposite the upper extremity of Bonhomme Island, there hast been discovered an ancient enclosure including an area of about five hundred acres.* It consists of two long straight walls, from six to fifteen feet in height and from seventy-five to one hundred feet in width at the base; one running along the margin of the river, and the other proceeding from bank to bank, so as to take in the ground intervening and lying in the bend of the stream. A circular redoubt is situated upon the opposite extremity of Bonhomme Island, with a wall surrounding it, about six feet high. The extremity of one of the long walls is protected by a similar work, while the other end terminates in a species of citadel, of a semicircular shape, strongly fortified, and possessing horn-works, curtains defending the gateways, and covered ways to the river. The walls of these ruins are covered with large cotton-trees of full growth.

Similar remains have been observed in the Territory still further west of the State of Missouri, and also on the Platte, Kanzas, and Jacques rivers. Upon the banks of the Arkansas

*Lewis and Clark's Travels, p. 47.

† Ibid, p. 65.

river, is a regular fortification covering an area of twenty-five acres; the walls are eight feet high, with deep ditches twentyfive feet broad. It has two entrances, and the appearance of a secret passage or covert way may be seen: in the middle are two truncated mounds, each eighty feet high and one thousand feet in circumference at the base.*

Other mural remains have been discovered within this state, and some of them are said to be constructed with brick; but though we have every reason to anticipate such discoveries, and particularly in the region stretching towards Mexico, the authority for their existence is too uncertain for reliance, and needs further confirmation.†

From this brief outline of the ancient fossa, cities, walls and fortifications, it will be readily perceived that those in the state of Ohio have been the most carefully surveyed, and have received the most accurate descriptions, while as to those in other sections, we owe our acquaintance with them for the most part to accidental and hasty observations, seldom conducted upon any fixed plan, or from any other motive than casual curiosity. It is highly probable that the unexplored regions of the west still offer a rich field for future research, and will add immeasurably to our information upon a subject so intimately connected with the development of the history of this continent, and of its ancient inhabitants. Not the least important object of such

* Silliman's Journal, vol. iii. p. 38.

"When at Little Rock we were strongly urged to visit an unexplored city, said to lie on the banks of Red River to the north-west of Alexandria, which is known in that remote country by the name of the Old Town. This, we were seriously assured, might be traced by

an investigation is the determination of the position, extent, and chain of continuity of these ruins, upon which circumstances depends in some degree the solution of a portion of the history of their authors.

embankments and ruins over an area twenty-three miles long, by four broad. Our informant stated that he should judge the cemetery to be a mile square."-Latrobe's Rambler in North America, vol. ii. p. 179.