placed Mr. R. W. Todd assured me, that he was present, during the year 1809, where some workmen were employed in sinking a well on Todd's Fork, a branch of the Little Miami. At the depth of eighteen or twenty feet, they came to the stump of a tree and a grape vine, and, lower down, to a wall, regularly constructed of hewn stone. Having dug a few feet along the side of this, their spades, &c. were arrested by a pavement composed of the same materials. They had but little time to comment on this discovery, for the water rushed in and obliged them to ascend so speedily, that they could hardly loosen one of the stones from the wall which, however, they accomplished, and brought it up with them. Mr. Todd examined the stone attentively, and declares it to have been a piece of a silicious limestone rock, of a regular oblong figure, evidently fashioned by some iron instrument.

With respect to the existence of the former, Mr. Savage, of this place, has lately made a discovery, that puts the fact beyond a possibility of doubt, and one that tends to throw much light upon the race of people now supposed extinct, that once inhabited the vallies of the Mississippi and Ohio.

This gentleman fatigued by the continual ennui of his situation, the natural consequence of his confinement to the Buffaloe steam boat, which, from accidents happening to her machinery, running aground, &c. was detained a long time in the Mississippi, determined upon an excursion to the shores of the river, where accident directed his steps to the ruins of a fortified town of considerable extent, near the river St. Francis; among which were still standing, part of the walls of a citadel, built of bricks cemented by mortar.

Over these walls were spread, the extended branches of a number of gigantic trees, which grew upon them. To ascertain the age of the largest of these, was a point of primary importance, to fell them, no easy task; perseverance, however, soon accomplished, what curiosity had commenced, and several of them were levelled with the earth, when it was found, from the number of annual rings visible on the surface of the stumps, that they must have stood there, at least, three hundred years!

which furnishes a hint, respecting the probable time the town became a ruin. The bricks (several of which are now in this place) are composed of clay mixed with chopped and twisted straw, of regular figures hardened by the action of fire, or the sun. It is a subject of deep regret to me, that I am only able to furnish this very lame and imperfect account of one of the most interesting discoveries, respecting the arts of the ancient inhabitants of America, that has ever been made; but the public will probably be the gainer, as Mr. Savage himself contemplates, ere long, laying before it every circumstance connected with this curious fact. not, however, take leave of the subject without observing, that had common attention, and but a small portion of curiosity existed in the minds of the earlier settlers of Kentucky, and in those of the western country gener ally, we should, no doubt, at the present moment, possess a sufficient mass of evidence to enable us to decide, most positively, on the nation or origin of that race of men, who have left behind them marks of civilization and refinement, that serve to distinguish them from the more savage inhabitants of the forest.

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MOUNDS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE STATE OF OHIO.

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(Archeologia Americana.)

HESE tumuli are very common on the river Ohio, from its utmost sources to its mouth. Few and small, comparatively, they are found on the waters of the Monongahela; but increase in number and size, as we descend towards the mouth of that stream, at Pittsburgh. Then rapidly increasing in number, they are of the largest dimensions at Grave Creek, below Wheeling.

"For an able and interesting account of those last mentioned," says Dr. Hildreth, "I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, of Brooke county, Virginia. An extract from his communication follows, dated,

"WELLSBURGH, Va. May 27, 1819.

"DEAR SIR,

"As to your inquiry concerning the ancient works at

Grave Creek, below Wheeling, I will give you the best account which I can.

The 'Big Grave,' as it is called, is certainly one of the most august monuments of remote Antiquity any where to be found. Its circumference at the base, is three hundred yards; its diameter, of course, one hundred. Its altitude, from measurement, is ninety feet; and its diameter, at the summit, is forty-five feet. The centre, at the summit, appears to have sunk several feet, so as to form a small kind of amphitheatre. The rim enclosing this amphitheatre, is seven or eight feet in thickness. On the south side, in its edge, stands a large beach tree, whose bark is marked with the initials of a great number of visitants.

This lofty and venerable tumulus has been so far opened, as to ascertain that it contains many thousands of human skeletons, but no farther. The proprietor of the ground, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, will not suffer its demolition in the smallest degree. I, for one, do him honour for his sacred regard for these works of Antiquity. I wish that the inhabitants of Chillicothe and Circleville had acted like Mr. Tomlinson. In that case, the mounds in those towns would have been left standing. They would have been religiously protected, as sacred relics of remote and unknown Antiquity.

Following the river Ohio downwards, the mounds appear on both sides, erected uniformly on the highest alluvions along the stream. Their numbers increase all the way to the Missisippi, on which river they assume the largest size. Not having surveyed them, we shall use the description of Mr. Brackenridge, who has de. voted great attention to them. With his discriminating powers of mind the public are acquainted.

These tumuli, as well as the fortifications, are to be found at the junction of all the rivers, along the Missisippi, in the most eligible positions for towns, and in the most extensive bodies of fertile land. Their number exceeds, perhaps, three thousand; the smallest not less than twenty feet in height, and one hundred in diameter at the base. Their great number, and the astonishing size of some of them, may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidence of their antiquity.

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I have been sometimes induced to think, that, at the period when these were constructed, there was a popu lation as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile, or of the Euphrates, or of Mexico. The most numerous, as well as the most considerable of these remains, are found precisely in those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, viz. from the mouth of the Ohio, on the east side of the river, to the Illinois river, and on the west side from the St. Francis to the Missouri, I am perfectly satisfied that CITIES, SIMILAR TO THOSE OF ANCIENT MEXICO, OF SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND SOULS, HAVE EXISTED IN THIS COUNTRY."

Nearly opposite St. Louis, there are traces of two such cities, in the distance of five miles. They are situated on the Cahokia, which crosses the American bottom opposite St. Louis. One of the mounds is eight hundred yards in circumference at the base, (the exact size of the pyramid of Asychis) and one hundred feet in height. Mr. Brackenridge, noticed "a mound at New Madrid of three hundred and fifty feet in diameter at the base." Other large ones are at the following places, viz. at St. Louis, one with two stages, another with three; at the inouth of the Missouri; at the mouth of Cahokia river, in two groups; twenty miles below, two groups also, but the mounds of a similar size; on the bank of a lake, formerly the bed of the river, at the mouth of Marameck, St. Genevieve; one near Washington, Missisippi state, of one hundred and forty-six feet in height; at Baton Rouge, and on the bayon Manchac; one of the mounds near the lake is composed chiefly of shells. The inhabitants have taken away great quantities of them for lime.

The mound on Black River, has two stages and a group around. At each of the above places there are groups of mounds, and there was probably once a city. Mr. Brackenridge thinks that the largest city belonging to this people, was situated between the Ohio, Missisippi, Missouri, and Illinois. On the plains between the Arkansaw and St. Francis, there are several very large mounds.

Thus it will be seen, that these remains which were

so few and small along the northern lakes, are more and more numerous as we travel in a south-western direction, until we reach the Missisippi, where they are lofty and magnificent. Those works similar to the Teocalli of Mexico, by the Spaniards called "Adoratorios," are not found north of the mound at Circleville on the Scioto, or at least, I have seen none of them. They are very common and lofty, it seems, on the Missisippi river. An observing eye can easily mark, in these works, the progress of their authors, from the lakes to the valley of the Missisippi; thence to the Gulph of Mexico, and round it, through Texas, into New Mexico, and into South America; their increased numbers, as they proceeded, are evident; while the articles found in and near these works, show also the progressive improvement of the arts among those who erected them.

Miscellaneous Remarks on the Uses of Mounds.

Though they were used as places of sepulture and of worship, yet, were they not sometimes in the last resort, used also as places of defence? Solis, who describes the destruction of the Mexicans, and the conquest of their empire by the Spaniards, informs us that the "Teocalli," which were like many of our works, in cases of extreme necessity, appeared like "living hills;" they were covered with warriors. Standing upon their altars and in their temples; upon the tombs of their fathers; defending themselves, their wives, their children, their aged parents, their country, and their gods, they fought with desperation. These mounds being elevated on high grounds, in situations easily defended, Is it not highly probable, that their authors, in cases of the last resort, used them as places of defence ?"