the "Ancients of the West," it shall be communicated to your Society, with a portion or all of the articles found. It seems to be a well established fact, that the bodies of nearly all those buried in mounds, were partially, if not entirely, consumed by fire, before the mounds were built. This is made to appear, by quantities of charcoal being found at the centre and base of the mounds; stones burned and blackened, and marks of fire on the metallic substances buried with them. It is a matter of much regret that on no one of the articles yet found, has been discovered any letters, characters, or hieroglyphicks, which would point to what nation or age these people belonged. I have been told by an eye witness, that a few years ago, near Blacksburgh in Virginia, eighty miles from Marietta, there was found about half of a steel bow, which, when entire, would measure five or six feet; the other part was corroded or broken. The father of the man who found it was a blacksmith, and worked up this curious article, I suppose, with as little remorse as he would an old gunbarrel. Mounds are very frequent in that neighbourhood, and many curious articles of Antiquity have been found there.

"I have also been told from good authority, that an ornament, composed of very pure gold, something similar to those found here, was discovered a few years since in Ross county, near Chillicothe, lying in the palm of a skeleton's hand, in a small mound. This curiosity, I am told, is in the Museum at Philadelphia."

As we still descend the Scioto, through a most fertile region of country, mounds and other ancient works frequently appear, untill we arrive at Circleville, twentysix miles south of Columbus, where are to be seen some of the most interesting Antiquities any where to be found.

"The works (at Circleville) have been noticed, but the mounds remain to be described. Of these there were several which the ruthless hand of man is destroying. Near the centre of the round fort, was a tumulus of earth, about ten feet in height, and several rods in diameter at its base. On its eastern side, and extending six rods from it, was a semicircular pavement, composed of pebbles, such as are now found in the bed of the Scioto

river, from whence they appear to have been brought. The summit of this tumulus was nearly thirty feet in diameter, and there was a raised way to it, leading from the east, like a modern turnpike. The summit was level. The outline of the semicircular pavement and the walk is still discernible.-The earth composing this mound was entirely removed several years since. The writer was present at its removal, and carefully examined the contents. It contained,

1.

Two human skeletons, lying on what had been the original surface of the earth.

2. A great quantity of arrow heads, some of which were so large, as to induce a belief that they were used for spear heads.

3. The handle either of a small sword or a large knife, made of an elk's horr; around the end where the blade had been inserted, was a ferule of silver, which, though black, was not much injured by time. Though the handle showed the hole where the blade had been inserted, yet no iron was found, but an oxyde remained of similar shape and size.

4. Charcoal and wood ashes, on which these articles lay, which were surrounded by several bricks very well burnt. The skeleton appeared to have been burned in a large and very hot fire, which had almost consumed the bones of the deceased. This skeleton was deposited a little to the south of the centre of the tumulus; and about twenty feet to the north of it, was another, with which were

5. A large mirror, about three feet in length, one foot and a half in breadth, and one inch and a half in thickness. This mirror was of isinglass, (mica membranacea) and on it,

6. A plate of iron, which had become an oxyde; but before it was disturbed by the spade, resembled a plate of cast iron. The mirror answered the purpose very well for which it was intended. This skeleton had also been buried like the former, and lay on charcoal and a considerable quantity of wood ashes. A part of the mirror is in my possession as well as a piece of a brick, taken from the spot at the time.

The knife, or sword handle, was sent to Mr. Peale's Museum, at Philadelphia.

To the south west of this tumulus, about forty rods from it, is another, more than ninety feet in height. It stands on a large hill, which appears to be artificial. This must have been the common cemetery, as it contains an immense number of human skeletons, of all sizes and ages.

The skeletons are laid horizontally, with their heads generally towards the centre, and the feet towards the outside of the tumulus. A considerable part of this work still stands uninjured, except by time. In it have been found, besides these skeletons, stone axes and knives, and several ornaments, with holes through them, by means of which, with a cord passing through these perforations, they could be worn by their owners.

On the south side of this tumulus, and not far from it, was a semicircular fosse, which, when I first saw it, was six feet deep. On opening it, was discovered at the bottom a great quantity of human bones, which, I am inclined to believe, were the remains of those who had been slain in some great and destructive battle. First, because they belonged to persons who had attained their full size; whereas, in the mound adjoining, were found the skeletons of persons of all ages; and secondly, they were here in the utmost confusion, as if buried in a hurry. May we not conjecture, that they belonged to the people who resided in the town, and who were victorious in the engagements? otherwise they would not have been thus honourably buried in the common cemetery.

ANCIENT TUMULI CONTINUED.

(From Mc. Murtrie's Sketches of Louisville.)

DR. MC. MURTRIE modestly remarks "the antiquities of the western country in general, have been already so minutely described by others, that I shall, no doubt be readily excused for the brevity of the present article, and the more so, as there is nothing of the kind peculiarly interesting in the immediate vicinity of Louis. ville.

Mounds or tumuli are occasionally met with, some of which have been opened; nothing, however, was found to repay the trouble of the search, but a few human

bones, mixed with others apparently belonging to the deer.

With respect to the uses of these accumulations, there can be no doubt; their contents speak plainly on the subject, and from the circumstance of some of them having been found to contain but one skeleton, while from others, of not more than equal magnitude, the remains of twenty have been disinterred, we may reason. ably conclude, that the former were designed for the mausolea of chiefs, or distinguished persons, the latter for those of the community.

Hatchets of stone, pestles or grain beaters, of the same material, arrow heads, of flint, together with the remains of hearths, indicated by flat stones surrounded by, and partly covered with broken shells, fragments of bones, charcoal, calcined earth, &c. are every where to be seen, and some of them in situations affording an ample fund for speculation to the geognost. Two of the first mentioned instruments were discovered, a few miles below the town, at the depth of forty feet, near an Indian hearth, on which, among other vestiges of a fire, were found two charred brands, evidently the extremities of a stick that had been consumed in the middle, on this identical spot: the whole of this plain, as we before observed, is alluvial, and this fact shows to what depth that formation extends. But at the time the owners of these hatchets were seated by the fire, where, I would ask, was the Ohio? Certainly not in its present bed, for these remains are below its level; and where else it may have been, I am at a loss even to conjecture, as there are no marks of any obsolete water course whatever, between the river and Silver Creek hills, on the one side, and between it and the Knobs, on the other.

Not many years past, an iron hatchet was found in a situation equally singular. A tree of immense size, whose roots extended thirty or forty feet each way, was obliged to be felled, and the earth on which it grew to be removed, in order to afford room for a wall connected with the foundations of the great mill, at Shippingport. A few feet below the surface, and directly under the centre of the tree, which was at least six feet in diameter,

was found the article in question, which, as was evident upon examination, had been formed out of a flat bar of wrought iron, heated in the fire to redness, and bent double, leaving a round hole at the joint for the reception of a handle, the two ends being nicely welded together, terminated by a cutting edge.

Many others of a similar description have been found at different times and places, but as they were always attributed to the settlers of Kentucky, subsequent to 1769, no care was taken to note such local circumstances as might have determined a greater quantity; and the one above mentioned would have, no doubt, shared the same fate, but for this obvious fact, that the tree must necessarily have grown over the axe previously deposited there, and that no human power could have placed it in the particular position in which it was found, after that event had taken place. The tree was upwards of two hundred years old.

A little below Clarksville, immediately on the bank of the river, is the site of a wigwam, covered with an alluvial deposition of earth, six feet in depth. Interspersed among the hearths, and scattered in the soil beyond them, are large quantities of human bones, in a very advanced stage of decomposition. Facts most generally speak for themselves, and this one, tells a very simple and probable tale. The village niust have been surprised by an enemy, many of whose bodies, mixed with those of the inhabitants, were left upon the spot. Had it been a common burial place, something like regularity would have been evinced in the disposition of the skeletons; neither should we have found them in the same place, with the fire places of an extensive settiement, (or near it) but below it.

That walls, constructed of bricks and hewn stones, have been discovered in the western country, is a fact as clear as that the sun shines when he is in his meridian splendour, the dogmatical assertions of writers to the contrary, notwithstanding. Among the great variety of the latter, I shall name but one, which I have selected, because, the gentleman who is my authority for the story, is now in this town, was himself on the spot, and is one on whose simple word the most implicit reliance may be