The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 29, 1867.

a perpetual succession of vast entrenched camps and '
colossal fortifications, in earth and stone, follow the
entire route. Every eminence is defended, as well
as every delta formed by the junction of two
streams. Redoubts and breastworks, ramparts and
circumvallations, mounds of observation and—ana-
chronistic as it seems—casenzates (as in the ruins of
Marietta, near the mouth of the Muskingum) attest
equally to the number, the skill, and the industry
of the population which constructed them. The most
perfect and characteristic, as well as the most emi-
nent of these stupendous defences, are to be met
with in the State of Ohio. A brief description of
those in the county of Licking must here suffice :
' Between the delta formed by the New/irk and the
Racoon there is a perpendicular table-land about 35
feet high, upon which regular fortifications of great
extent are built. On the west side of the platform
is an octangular fort, enclosing a space of about
forty acres, with walls about nine feet in height, and
of equal breadth. This fort was entered by eight
gates about five yards in width, each protected
by a tumulus placed in the interior in front of
the entrances. Two parallel walls lead to another
circular fort, placed south-west of the first, covering
a space of twenty-two acres. Proceeding towards
the south, you see an observatory that commands
almost all the extent upon which these divers con-
structions are erected. Beneath the observatory a
secret passage leads to the bank of the Racoon.
Farther to the right, is a third fort, also circular, of
about 26 acres, with an interior moat, out of which
the earth was taken to form the walls of the fort,
which are about 25ft. or 30ft. high. Two other
parallel walls, very distant from each other at this
place, run to the north, gradually diminishing their
distance, and terminate at another fort, of quad-
rangular shape, 20 acres in extent. These four
different forts are connected by rather low walls,
and in the centre is a shallow pond covering a super-
ficies of 150 or 200 acres, which probably afforded
water to the flocks collected within the wide en-
closure. Towers of observation are placed from
distance to distance on the rising points of the
plateau.'
" Two classes of objects are equally distributed
over the whole continent, namely, ornaments for the
person, in copper, and various utensils in pottery.
Copper, in its virgin state, obtained from the vicinity
of the Great Lakes, and hammered into the forms
of bracelets, anklets, axes, mauls, &c., appears to
have been in very general use from an early period.
Silver, lead, and iron were also worked, but on a
limited scale ; whilst brass and bronze, the former
in the north, and the latter in the south, were more
extensively employed. A few years ago the corpse
of a warrior was discovered in one of the sepulchral
mounds in the streets of Marietta, Ohio, with the
remains of a baldrick or buckler, ' composed of
copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver,' lying
across his breast. By his side were several broken
pieces of copper tubing, filled with iron rust'—all,
in fact, that remained of his scabbard and sword.
A piece of iron ore, which had the appearance of
having been vitrified,' was likewise found with them.
In reference to this discovery, Mr. Squier remarks,
' These articles have been critically examined, and
it is beyond doubt that the bosses are absolutely
plated, not simply overlaid, with silver' (p. 188).
But we can hardly accept this conclusion. The
effect described was produced more likely by chemi-
cal action ; in other words, the 'metals had become
partially amalgamated by the lapse of time. The
presence, however, of oxydised steel or iron, as well
as a specimen of iron ors,' in the same
monument, is a much bore interesting and important
fact than the other ; it betokens an advanced know-
ledge of metallurgy invery primitive times—a know-
ledge which must havebeen lost to succeeding gene-
rations, and long anterior to the age of the conquest.
Iron was then absohtely unknown in the New
World, excepting to one solitary tribe, established
at the mouth of the la Plata, whose arrows and
spears were tipped wits it. But of all the abori-
ginal arts that of pottery had attained to the highest
degree of perfection. The t •rra-cotta vases have
been compared in fulfil with the choicest antique
specimens in Europe. Those found in the pueblos
and wells of New :Mexico still retain,' says the
Abbit Domenech, a ,ery perfect varnish ; they are
ornamented with brillant paintings, lines, scallops,
frogs, butterflies, toroises, and monkeys' heads.'
In the States to the eat of the Mississippi they are
almost equally excellent. Yet it has been questioned
whether the aborigines were acquainted with the
potter's wheel. Besides a large assortment of cine-
rary urns, many of Old World types arrow-heads
,
of rock
hatchets,ckcrysta l,agate, and silex, copper and stone
axes,gouges,
and
chisels,
knives
in
obs;_
dian, perforated shells—some from the Gulf shores,
and others from the southern coasts of India —the
most ancient of the mounds have also yielded brace-
lets of brass, smooth and polished, rings and tubes
of the same material, venous ornaments for the per-
son in silver, pipes of terracotta, slate, and steatite,
rude sculptures in wood, and finer sculptures in
more durable materials, representing tropical qua-
drupeds, birds, fishes, &e."