Near this semicircle is a very height, but ninety feet in cir

in Europe, two thousand years ago. singular mound of only five feet in cumference, composed entirely of red ochre; which answers well as a paint. An abundance of this ochre is found on a hill, not a great distance from this place; from which circumstance, the stream which runs along here, is called Paint Creek.

So vast a heap of this paint being deposited, is pretty clear evi dence, that it was an article of commerce among these nations Here may have been a store house, or a range of them, attended by salesmen, or merchants; who took in exchange for it, copper, feathers, bow and arrow timber, stone for hatchets, spears, and knives, wooden ploughs and shovels; with skins and furs, for clothing; stones for building their rude altars and works; with food to sustain the populace, as the manner of cities of the present time. Red paint in particular, is used now among the Hindoos, which they mark themselves with, as well as their gods. This vast collection of red paint, by the ancient nations, on Paint Creek, favors the opinion, that it was put to the same use, by the same people.

Near this work is another, on the same creek, enclosing eightyfour acres, part of which is a square fort, with seven gateways; and the other a fort, of an irregular oval, with seven gateways, surrounded with a wall like the others. But the most interesting work of the three contiguous forts, is yet to be described. It is situated on a high hill, of more than three hundred feet elevation, and in many places almost perpendicular. The wall running round this work, is built exactly on the brow of the precipice, and in its courses, is accommodated to the variations of this natural battlement, enclosing, in the whole, an hundred and thirty acres. On its south end the ground is level, where the entrance to the fort is easy. At the north end, which approaches pretty near to Paint - Creek, appears to have been a gateway descending to the water, the ground favoring it at this point, as well as at one other, leading to a little stream, which runs along its base, on the east side of this eminence, where is also another gateway; these three places are the only points which are at all accessible. The wall round the whole one hundred and thirty acres, is entirely of stone, and is in sufficient quantity, if laid up in good order, to make it ten feet high, and four thick. At the north gateway, stones enough now lie, to have built two considerable round towers, taken from the hill itself, and are of the red sand stone kind.

Near the south end of this enclosure, at the place where it is easiest of access, 'appear to have been a row of furnaces, (says Mr. Atwater) or smith's shops, where the cinders now lie, many feet deep; but was not able to say with certainty, what manufactures were carried on here, whether brick or iron, or both." It was a clay, that had been exposed to the action of fire; the remains of which are four and five feet in depth; which shows in a good degree, the amount of business done was great. "Iron ore, in this country, is sometimes found in such clay; brick and potter's ware are now manufactured out of it. This fort is, from its natural site, one of the strongest positions of the kind in the State of Ohio, so high is its elevation, and so nearly perpendicular are the sides of the hill on which it was built." At the several angles of the wall, and at the gateways, the abundance of stone lying there, leads to the belief, that those points, towers and battlements once overlooked the country to an immense distance; from whence stones and arrows might have been launched away, from engines adapted to that purpose, among the approaching enemy, with dreadful effect. "No military man could have selected a better position for a place of protection to his countrymen, their temples and their gods,"

than this.

ANCIENT WELLS FOUND IN THE BOTTOM OF PAINT CREEK.

IN the bed of Paint Creek, which washes the foot of the hill, on which the walled town stood, have been discovered four wells. They were dug through a pyritous slate rock, which is very rich in iron ore. When first discovered, by a person, passing over them in a canoe, they were covered, each by stones of about the size and shape of the common mill stone. These covers had holes through their centre, through which a large pry, or handspike might be put for the purpose of removing them off and on the wells. The hole through the centre of each stone, was about four inches in diameter. The wells at their tops were more than nine feet in circumference; the stones were well wrought with tools, so as to

make good joints, as a stone mason would say, which were laid around them severally, as a pavement. At the time they were dug, it is not likely, Paint Creek run over these wells. For what they were sunk, is a mystery; as that for the purposes of water, so many so near each other, would scarcely appear necessary; perhaps for some kind of ore or favorite stone, was the original object, perhaps for salt water.

There is, at Portsmouth, Ohio, one of those works, which is very extensive and wonderful, on account of walled roads, a 'high place,' with many intricate operations in its construction.

On the east bank of the Little Miami, about thirty miles east from Cincinnati, are vast works of this character; having the form almost exactly of the continent of North and South America, as presented on the map, on which account some have supposed they were made in imitation of it.

A RECENT DISCOVERY OF ONE OF THOSE ANCIENT WORKS AMONG THE ALLEGHANIES.

NEW discoveries are constantly making of these ancient works, the farther we go west, and the more minutely the research is prosecuted, even in parts already settled.

During the last year, 1832, a Mr. Ferguson communicated to the editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal, a discovery of the kind, which he examined, and describes as follows:

"On a mountain called the Lookout mountain, belonging to the vast Alleghanian chain, running between the Tennessee and Coos rivers, rising about one thousand feet above the level of the surrounding valley. The top of the mountain is mostly level, but presents to the eye an almost barren waste. On this range, notwithstanding its height, a river has its source, after traversing it for about seventy miles, plunges over a precipice. The rock from which the water falls, is circular, and juts over considerably. Immediately below the fall, on each side of the river, are bluffs, which rise about two hundred feet. Around one of these bluffs, the river

makes a bend, which gives it the form of a peninsula. On the top of this are the remains of what is esteemed fortifications; which consist of a stone wall, built on the very brow of this tremendous ledge. The whole length of the wall, following the varying courses of the brink of this precipice, as thirty-seven rods and eight feet, including about two acres of ground."

The only descent from this place is between two rocks, for about thirty feet, when a bench of the ledge presents itself, from two to five feet in width, and ninety feet long. This bench is the only road or path up from the water's edge to the summit. But just at the foot of the two rocks, where they reach this path, and within thirty feet of the top of the rock, are five rooms, which have been formed by dint of labor. The entrance to these rooms is very small, but when within, they are found to communicate with each other, by doors or apertures. Mr. Ferguson thinks them to have been constructed during some dreadful war, and those who constructed them, to have acted on the defensive; and believe that twenty men could have withstood the whole army of Xerxes, as it was impossible for more than one to pass at a time; and might by the slightest push, be hurled at least an hundred and fifty feet down the rocks. The reader can indulge his own conjectures, whether, in the construction of this inaccessible fortress, he does not perceive the remnant of a tribe or nation, acquainted with the arts of excavation and defence; making a last struggle against the invasion of an overwhelming foe; where, it is likely, they were reduced by famine, and perished amid the yells of their enemies.

A DESCRIPTION OF WESTERN TUMULI OR MOUNDS.

WE now proceed to a description of the ancient tumuli of the west, and of discoveries made on opening many of them; quoted from the Researches of the Antiquarian Society.

Ancient Tumuli are considered a kind of antiquities, differing in character from that of the other works; both on account of what is frequently discovered in them, and the manner of their construc

tion. They are conical mounds, either of earth or stones, which were intended for sacred and important purposes. In many parts of the world, similar mounds were used as monuments, sepulchres, altars, and temples. The accounts of these works, found in the Scriptures, show, that their origin must be sought for among the Antediluvians.

That they are very ancient, and were used as places of sepulture, public resort, and public worship, is proved by all the writers of ancient times, both sacred and profane. HOMER frequently mentions them, particularly describing the tumulus of Tydeus, and the spot where it was. In memory of the illustrious dead, a sepulchral mound of earth was raised over their remains; which, from that time forward, became an altar, whereon to offer sacrifices, and around which to exhibit games of athletic exercise. These offerings and games were intended to propitiate their names, to honor and perpetuate their memories. Prudentius, a Roman bard, has told us, that there were in ancient Rome, just as many temples of gods, as there were sepulchres of heroes; implying that they were the same. Need I mention the tomb of Anchies, which Virgil has described, with the offerings there presented, and the games there exhibited? The sanetity of Acropolis, where Cecrops was inhumed? The tomb of the father of Adonis, at Paphos, whereon a temple dedicated to Venus, was erected? The grave of Cleomachus, whereon stood a temple dedicated to the worship of Apollo ? Finally, I would ask the classical reader, if the words translated tomb, and temple, are not used as synonymous, by the poets of Greece and Rome? Virgil, who wrote in the days of Augustus Cæsar, speaks of these tumuli, as being as ancient as they were sacred, even in his time.

In later times, after warriors arose and performed great and mighty deeds, the whole tribe or nation joined to raise, on some 'high place,' generally, a lofty tumulus, for commemorative and sacred purposes. At first, sacrfices might have been, and probably were, offered on these tumuli, to the true God, as the Great Author and Giver of life; but in later times, they forgot Him, and worshipped the manes of heroes they had buried there.

The conical mounds in Ohio, are either of stones or of earth. The former, in other countries, and in former ages, were intended as monuments, for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of some