tions that those countries were formerly inhabited by industrious nations, which are now traversed only by tribes of savage hunters." Humboldt. Samuel R. Brown, author of the Western Gazetteer, 1817, says, he examined one of those remains of the ancient nations, situated upon the mouth of the Big Scioto river on a high bank of the Ohio, a half mile from the water. He has no doubt it was a military position of great strength, and describes it as follows:

"The walls are yet standing, and enclosing as nearly as I could ascertain, by pacing fourteen acres of ground. It is of a square form" (like the ancient Roman military works.) "The officious hand of civilized man has not yet marred the wood which shade these venerable ruins; nor has any curious antiquarian multilated the walls by digging in search of hidden treasure. The walls in many places are yet sixteen feet high, and no where less than eight. At their base they are about thirty feet wide, and wide enough at their top to admit a horse team and waggon. There are seven gateways, 3 on the west, 2 on the east, and 2 on the north, all being about 20 feet wide. On the northwest side are the ruins of a covered way, extending to a creek, at the distance of 280 rods. The covering is fallen in, and large trees are yawning in the ditch. On the west side are two covered ways, leading also to the same creek, these are apart from each other about 30 feet, and extending about 40 rods till they reach the stream. These walls are as wide and as high as the walls of the fort. On the east side, are also two covered ways at convenient distances from each other, leading to another small creek.

Thus the garrison of this ancient fortification had five avenues through which they could safely procure water." This could never have been the work of the common Indians.

GREAT STONE CALENDAR OF THE MEXICANS, BEING A FAC SIMILE FROM THE SAME IN HUMBOLDT'S VOLUME OF RESEARCHES.

THIS stone was found near the site of the present city of Mexico, buried some feet beneath the soil, of the same character on which was engraven an almost infinite number of hieroglyphics, signifying the divisions of time, the motions of the heavenly bodies, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with references to the feasts and sacrifices of the Mexicans, and is called by Humboldt, the Mexican Calendar, in relief, on basalt.

This deservedly celebrated historiographer and antiquarian, has devoted an hundred pages and more of his octavo work, entitled "Researches in America," in describing the similarity which exists between its representations of astrology, astronomy, and the divisions of time, and those of a great multitude of the nations of Asia; Chinese, Japanese, Calmucks, Moghols, Mantchaus, and other Tartar nations; the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Pho

nicians, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and ancient Celtic nations of Europe. See the American edition, by Helen Maria Williams, 1st Volume. The size of this stone was very great, being a fraction over twelve feet square, three feet in thickness, weighing twentyfour tons. It is of the kind of stone denominated trappean prophyry, of the blackish grey color.

The place where it was found was more than thirty miles from any quarry of the kind; from which we discover the ability of the ancient inhabitants, not only to transport stones of great size, as well as the ancient Egyptians, in building their cities and temples of Marble, but also to cut and engrave on stone, equal with the present age.

It was discovered in the vale of Mexico, forty-two years ago, in the spot where Cortez ordered it to be buried, when, with his ferocious Spaniards, that country was devastated. That Spaniard universally broke to pieces all idols of stone, which came in his way, except such as were too large and strong to be quickly and easily thus effected. Such he buried, among which this sculptured stone This was done to hide them from the sight of the natives, whose strong attachment, whenever they saw them, counteracted their conversion to the Roman Catholic religion.

was one.

The sculptured work on this stone, is in circles; the outer one of all, is a trifle over 27 feet in circumference; from which the reader can have a tolerable notion of its size and appearance. The whole stone is intensely crowded with an infinity of representations and hieroglyphics; arranged however, in order and harmony, every way equal with any astronomical calendar of the present day. It is further described by Baron Humboldt, who saw and examined it on the spot.

"The concentric circles, the numerous divisions and subdivisions, engraven in this stone, are traced with mathematical precision; the more minutely the detail of this sculpture is examined, the greater the taste we find in the repetition of the same forms. In the cen-* tre of the stone is sculptured the celebrated sign nahui-olin-Tonatiuh, the SUN; which is surrounded by eight triangular radii. The god Tonatiuh or the SUN, is figured on this stone, opening his large mouth, armed with teeth, with the tongue protruded to a great length. This yawning mouth, and protruded tongue, is like the image of Kala, or in another work, Time, a divinity of Hindostan.

Its dreadful mouth, armed with teeth, is meant to show, that the god, Tonatiuh, or Time, swallows the world, opening a fiery mouth devouring the years, months, and days, as fast as they come into being. The same image we find under the name of Moloch, among the Phoenicians," the ancient inhabitants of a part of Africa, on the southern side of the Mediterranean; from which very country, there can be but little doubt, America received a portion of its earliest inhabitants; hence, a knowledge of the arts to great perfection, as found among the Mexicans, was thus derived. Humboldt says, the Mexicans, have evidently followed the Persians, in the division of time, as represented on this stone. The Persians flourished 1500 years before Christ.

"The structure of the Mexican aqueducts, leads the imagination at once, to the shores of the Mediterranean.”—Thomas' Travels, p. 293. The size, grandeur, and riches, of the tumuli on the European and Asiatic sides of the Cimmerian Strait," (which unites the Black Sea with the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, the region of ancient Greece, where the capital of Turkey in Europe now stands, called Constantinople,) "excite astonishing ideas of the wealth and power of the people by whom they were constructed; and in view of labor so prodigious, as well as expenditure so enormous, for the mere purpose of inhuming a single body, customs and superstitions which illustrate the origin of the pyramids of Egypt, the cavern of Elephanta, and the first temples of the ancient world."-Thomas' Travels.

But whatever power, wealth, genius, magnitude of tumulimounds, and pyramids, are found about the Mediterranean; where the Egyptian, the Phoenician, Persian, and the Greek, have displayed the monuments of this most ancient sort of antiquities: all, all is realised in North and South America; and doubtless under the influence of the same superstition, and eras of time; having crossed over, as before argued; and among the various aboriginal nations of South and North America, but especially the former, are undoubtedly found the descendants of the fierce Medes and Persians, and other warlike nations of the old world.

The discoveries of travellers in that country, show, even at the present time, that the ancient customs, in relation to securing their habitations with a wall, still prevails. Towns in the interior of Africa, on the River Niger, of great extent, are found to be sur

rounded by walls of earth, in the same manner as those of the west in North America.

See the account as given by Richard Lardner: "On the 4th of May we entered a town of prodigious extent, fortified with three walls, of little less than twenty miles in circuit, with ditches, or moats between. This town, called Boo-hoo, and is in latitude of about 8 degrees 43 minutes north, and longitude 5 degrees 10 minutes, east. On the 17th we came to Roossa, which is a cluster of huts walled with earth."

This traveller states, that there is a kingdom there called Yaorie, which is large, powerful, and flourishing; a city which is of prodigious extent; the wall surrounding it is of clay or earth, and, very high, its circuit, between twenty and thirty miles. He mentions several other places, enclosed by earth walls in the same

manner.

It is easy to perceive the resemblance between these walled towns in central Africa, and the remains of similar works in this country, America.

GREAT STONE CASTLE OF ICELAND.

IN Iceland, which is not far from Greenland, and Greenland is not far from the coast of America, has been found the remains of ancient architecture, of no less dimensions than two hundred rods in circumference, built of stone, the wall of which, in some places, as related by Van Troil, was an hundred and twenty feet high; this was the Norwegian castle, of wonderful strength and magnitude, and of the same character with ruins found in this country, and in South America.

Iceland is but an hundred and twenty miles east of Greenland, and Greenland is supposed to be connected with America, far to the north. This island is considerable larger than the state of New York, being four hundred miles in length, and two hundred and seventy in breadth. It was discovered by a Norwegian pirate, named Nardoddr, in the year 861, as he was driven out to sea by an