A third and entirely distinct class of works are the "Graded Ways," of which, however, there are only a very few examples in the whole country.

The tumuli which so profusely dot the landscape in the best portions of Southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, and, generally speaking, the valley regions of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, are usually of the simple conical form, much flattened, and varying from a diameter of ten feet and a height of three feet to such great structures as the Grave Creek Mound in West Virginia, the monster of the Ohio Valley, with a height of seventy feet and a diameter of three hundred; or the mammoth Cahokia Mound, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, below St. Louis, which is the largest mound in the Northern States, and has a height of more than one hundred feet. Nine out of ten of the common mounds are sepulchral or burial mounds, as is evidenced by the finding of human remains at their bases, but a few cover altars on which sacrificial fires once burned. That others were primarily designed as the places from which signals might be made is clearly revealed by a little study.

Of the enclosures, the class that is by far the most numerous, is that denominated sacred enclosures, which term was long years ago applied to and still remains by common consent the general appellation of all those works, usually lying in the valleys and embodying more or less regularity of structure, or the combination of regular forms, as of the circle and square. Of course their use is largely conjectural, and the term "sacred enclosures," therefore, more or less fanciful, and yet not entirely without a rational basis. They may have been-and doubtless were the general assembly places of the populace, and devoted to various functions and occasions; yet there is evidence that the religious purpose was a common one, and hence the term 'Sacred Enclosures" is most satisfactory and definitive.

It is obvious, as, almost without exception, the works of this class occur in the immediate valleys, that they were not primarily designed as places of defense, though they could, and doubtless often did, serve that end in emergency, and their substantial earth walls, from six to thirty feet in height, especially when sur

mounted by palisades, of which there is frequent evidence, would form no mean barrier against an enemy.

It is just as obvious that the other class of enclosures were designed primarily and principally for works of defense. The socalled "Forts" were formidable fastnesses. In fact, it would appear that they were almost absolutely impregnable to any assaults that could have been made upon them in the ancient days. Briefly described, they are walled hills- forts upon precipice tops-the embankments in these usually being formed of stone instead of earth, and carried around the comparatively level summits of the hills just at their edges. They often enclose areas of isolated hill-tops amounting to forty, fifty or even more than a hundred acres, and some of them, it is easy to be seen, might have afforded a place of refuge and defense to tens of thousands of people through a long siege. Such was

the vantage that their location and construction afforded that each man at the walls of these hill fortresses could have held a score or a hundred assailants in check.

The great size and number of these defensive works and of the still more numerous and extensive enclosures commonly called "sacred," especially in such regions as that of the Scioto and Miami Valleys in Ohio, is proof positive that it was a very large population that resided there and reared them. Indeed, it seems not improbable that in these immediate localities the country was as fully peopled in the ancient time as it is to-day. The magnitude and profusion of the works, too, afford a convincing proof of the dominance of a strong government, of a remarkable fixedness of purpose, and of a long occupation of the country, for without the existence of those conditions it is inconceivable that such vast public works could have been constructed. too, the conviction arises irresistibly that there was among the people at least a sufficiently high degree of civilization to render them an agricultural race, for it is impossible that such great masses of men as must have toiled to rear the many miles of earth-embankments and the countless thousands of mounds could have subsisted on the products of the chase. The mere fact that a population so large and advanced existed here, being thus attested, many other ideas concern

So,

There seems reason to believe that the seat of empire of the ancient people was in southern central Ohio. From the frequency with which the mounds and larger works occur in the southern portion of that State and of Illinois, it is evident that these two regions were the most densely populated by the Mound Builders; and as between the two, the far greater number of tumuli and the predominance of extensive works in the Ohio field, points to that as the region of densest population, inferentially it was the centre of government- the true heart of the Mound Builder country.

For the reason here suggested and also because the writer is best acquainted with the works in the Ohio field, having examined personally many of the more elaborate ones there, he will dwell chiefly upon the remains in that region, as illustrating the nature and achievements of the lost people. It is well enough to say, however, at the outstart, that while this is generally regarded as the richest region for research in this department of archæology, the largest mound of all in the country, the great Cahokia tumulus, is in Illinois, and the next largest, the almost equally famous Grave Creek Mound, is in West Virginia (though upon the Ohio river). These facts while not weakening the original statement attest the wide spreading of the ancient population and enforce attention to the fact that while the greatest numerical strength of the race was very probably in the valleys of Southern Ohio, there were also bodies of the same people, by no means insignificant in numbers, inhabiting districts remote from there. And this idea is further impressed by the circumstance that while the Scioto Valley (central southern Ohio) is certainly of all localities in the northern states, the richest in great enclosures of embankments, the most immense enclosure of all known, is far away from that region, in a northeasterly direction (near Newark, Licking County, Ohio).

Having thus conveyed some idea of the relative richness of the Ohio archæological field, there remains the task of exhibiting something of the actual numerical wealth of the works, together with some details as to the more important examples of the several classes. obtain an adequate idea of the vast

To

will be of service. Forty odd years ago Squier and Davis, the first able and thorough investigators of this archæological

NEWARK WORK, LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.

field, affirmed that in the State of Ohio alone, the number of tumuli was safely estimated at 10,000 and the number of enclosures at from 1,000 to 1,500. Recent computations of the number make them very much larger. When one reflects that each of the latter class of works, excepting perhaps very small ones, in groups, must represent the site of a village or organized settlement, strong evidence is adduced in support of the theory that the country was occupied by a very large population.

This class of works is most numerous along the larger streams tributary to the Ohio and upon the latter waterway itself, but usually, it is noticeable, at those points where it receives the waters of its affluents. The Scioto and the two Miamis seem to have been the most favored valleys, and there existed the seats of the densest population. Although the earthremains, large and small, are scattered more or less numerously throughout the State (and in the contiguous territory of West Virginia and Pennsylvania where the Allegheny river marks their eastern boundary) it is worthy of remark that seven-tenths of the whole number and all of the larger works are in the southern half of the State. A map showing all of the works would very clearly indicate that in this general region the prehistoric population was located with some relation to the advantages of the "beautiful river," precisely as farther west the Mississippi would appear the dominating geographical feature in the grouping of the people. But while the general showing of such a map as has been alluded to,

would be as indicated, there would be also revealed very great differences in the relative profusion of works and density of population in various portions of the Ohio basin (and as well in that of the Mississippi).

Most crowded of all at present with earth-remains, as it was of old with the toiling thousands of the mysterious race who reared them, would appear to be the fertile valley of the famous and picturesque Scioto, which divides southern Ohio by a north and south line from above Columbus to the Ohio river at Portsmouth. Adown this lovely valley, within an area one hundred miles in length and a score of miles in breadth, it is safe to say that there are nearly two thousand separate works of the Mound Builders, large and small. In Ross county (which includes Chillicothe, near which town the most important "find" of sepultured remains known in the history of Ohio archæology was recently made, at "Copper Cross Mound") there are not far from five hundred mounds and about one hundred enclosures. That here must have been the ancient seat of empire is an almost irresistible conclusion.

A section of twelve miles of this valley, embracing as its central point the city of Chillicothe, exhibits ten groups of large works, four of which have two and a half miles of embankment each, two others enclosing an area of one hundred acres each, while the remaining ones ones are scarcely inferior in size. Paint Creek, an affluent of the Scioto at Chillicothe, and its charming valley, walled by bold bluffs, was seemingly as fully appreciated by the ancient people as the larger basin

A section of six miles along its course reveals three works about equal in size to those on the Scioto and three lesser ones. The face of the country round about and far away, upland as well as valley, is dotted with the little conical mounds or tumuli, which are, throughout this region, so common as to excite comparatively little interest save by their large aggregate, or where peculiar features are presented.

Further up the Scioto are other extensive works. At Circleville, Pickaway county, was the great circle from which the town takes its name, and in this case the name is absolutely all that is left of one of the most remarkable of the Mound Builders' works, for the people who set

"The Liberty Works," as they are commonly called, are among the larger enclosures near Chillicothe and present the oft-recurring combination of the circle and the square of which another Scioto valley example is afforded by the Hopetown works, north of Chillicothe. The larger circle of the Liberty enclosure is seventeen hundred feet in diameter, or very nearly a third of a mile, and the smaller circle is eight hundred feet in diameter. The former encloses an area of forty acres, and the adjoining square, measuring one thousand and fifty feet, encloses an area of twenty-seven acres. There are several small mounds in and about this immense work and one large tumulus, oval in form, about one hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty in height. The walls of this work are not as heavy in proportion to their length as are those of some others; but save in this respect it is a fairly representative work of the larger class.

The Hopetown works exhibit far more

massive walls, those of one of the enclosures being even at the present day fully twelve feet high, and broad enough upon the crest to accommodate a horse and carriage as easily as does the average country road. Here have been discovered in the top of the embankments traces of palings which once surmounted them, and at either side of the broad entrances were found traces of massive timbers, which indicated that the gaps had once been closed by some form of gates or barricades. These works present a combination of several forms of enclosure, the principal figures being the circle and a peculiar octagon so compressed as

cumulative evidence to the theory that this was indeed the seat of empire of the Mound Builders.

The discovery alluded to was made by Warren K. Moorehead, working under the auspices of Prof. F. W. Putnam of Harvard College. A vast number of mounds have been excavated in the past halfcentury in various parts of the Mound Builders' country, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of skeletons have been exhumed, together with a great variety of implements and ornaments, principally of stone, and also some of copper; but the distinguishing features of this exhumation were the evidences of unusual pomp of sepulture so far surpassing all others that it would unequivocally indicate that this was the tomb of the most exalted personage who had existed among the prehistoric people, or at least of one who was of greater prestige than any of those whose graves have been laid bare by investigators. These circumstances, together with the finding among an unprecedented wealth of copper objects, remarkably fine in workmanship, of several peculiar crosses, made the excavation of the great Effigy Mound in the Hopewell group, on Paint Creek, near Chillicothe, an epochal discovery in American archæology. The Swatiska cross, as it is called, it should be observed, is a distinctively Oriental form, and seemingly throws a faint gleam of light on the antecedents of the mysterious Mound Builder

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to be easily mistaken for a square, and low but long extending parallel walls stretching across the level bottom lands toward the river, but terminating at the first terrace, where perhaps the river flowed when they were constructed centuries ago.

The plentifulness and variety of these works in the valley of the Scioto, together with the vastness of some of them, make it seem quite natural that this should have been the locality of the "find" of the most important and imposing mortuary remains ever discovered among the relics of the ancient race; and this recent remarkable unearthing supplies

race.

The Hopewell group of works, the scene of this discovery, which, more than any other, has interested the students of the mounds, consisted of an enclosure, the embankments of which extended nearly two miles, several lesser enclosures and a group of twenty-six mounds. It was in the largest of these, the now famous Effigy or "Copper Cross Mound" bearing a rude resemblance to the human trunk and measuring five hundred by two hundred and ten feet, with a height of twenty-three feet-that the bones of the distinguished ancient had their thousand years, at least, of stately sepulture. The skeleton was one of a dozen or more, but the distinction which had been accorded to the man, who once had animated these crumbling bones, was very plainly indicated by the profusion of ornament and insignia with which the body had been invested when laid to rest.

which had formed, together with the helmet, a rude armor. The body had been covered with a tunic or skirt of coarse cloth, and the neck, arms, and ankles were encircled with copper bracelets, beads of pearl and shell and bear's teeth. Besides these was an immense deposit of objects, for the most part common to the sepulchral mounds, but far exceeding in size and variety, and also in the plentifulness of the copper ornaments and implements, all other finds. Among the latter was an enormous copper axe, weighing thirty-eight pounds, and numerous objects supposed to have significance as totems, as well as the crosses already mentioned. There were over seven thousand flint implements and about twentyfive thousand pearl and shell beads. Such, in brief, was the "great find" made in the region richest in Mound Builder remains of all in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.

There are remarkable remains in other localities of Ohio, and the most unique of all in some respects are to be found at Marietta, the site of the first settlement in the State by the present race, whichas the Indians also long maintained a town

there-is the third family of mankind which has exhibited a marked preference for the spot. The greater part of the plain, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio, on which the present town stands, was originally covered with a large rectangular enclosure and other works. The early settlers here, however, took measures for the preservation of many of the works, and among the remaining ones now carefully protected are elevated squares, truncated pyramids or platforms of earth with graded approaches or ascents, in some cases recessed, in some projecting. These are almost unique in the north, but very common in Mexico and Central America, where they are known as teocalli and form the supporting structures of great temples. It is a perfectly reasonable conjecture that they also did in this locality, but that here, the surmounting temples being of wood or other perishable material, instead of adobe or stone, as at the south, have long since decayed.

A "graded way" is also preserved at Marietta, and it is the best example of this very rare class of works in the whole country, being much larger than the one at Piketon on the Scioto. It is a broad, perfectly graded incline, cut down like a street through the high plain to the river's edge (the Muskingum). measures six hundred and eighty feet in length by one hundred and fifty feet in breadth. What could this, and the few other graded ways in existence, have been used for by the Mound Builders, if

ANCIENT WORKS, MARIETTA, O.

It

not as huge boat or raft launches? These works occur only contiguous to the large water-courses, near which also are most of the large enclosures and mounds, indicating that their builders had more than a merely accidental pre