American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1827-10-26

a..,ent population existed. precisely, in the pis
ces, where the most crowded future population
Will exist, in the days TO como. The only circum-
stance. that strongly discseits their having been
formed BY the prosenltors Of the present Indians.
IS the pra -ous size Of some of them, beyond
shat could be expected from the sparse population,
AMI the induenee OF the present race We know
u no monuments. which they now raise for their
dead, that might not be the work Of few people
"a few days. We have seen mounds, which
would require the labor Of thousand men, such
as are employed on canals. with all their me-
uhancal aids and improved implements of labor,
Tor months, to construct thetn We have, more
than once, paused in view OF these gigantic cree
tions, and enouired, If they not natural hills
But they are uniformly so placed, in reference to
the adjoining country and their conformation is so
aniqse and similar, that no eve hesitates long in
ceerring them 10 the class Of artificial works.
The largest TINT has been discovered in the Ohio
yalley as far as We know.is in the bottom Of Grave
creek. its enhance into the Ohio, and four
teen miles below Wheeling. 1t is between thirty
and forty rods in circumference at its base, with
prnportinnate diameter ii is seventy feet in per
peldicnlar height, and mas table area on its
NIT, which is siAti feet in diameter; il the CEN
ire Of which Is great aud regular concavitv A
single white oak rises from this c0nca,lty, like 4
fag stat.
Dat Tue most HutnPtNuS,d u Dy lar tne most IN
feresing group OF maunGs, that We have seen. is
near Cahoka. in the american bottom not far from
tie Mississippi. There are said to be two hun
dred in all. The largest i, on the banks Of Calm
kla creek. Its form is ira. of parallelogran IL
circumference i commonl, given at e -ht hundre
yards, and it hit from ninety to hundred feet
There i a terrace on the south side OF it. When
We first -aw i, the monks Of La Irappp had
monastery adjoining il, and their garden was on
the terrace. They cultivated the mound Al!
words superiluous, all Effort unavang to con
Sey any thing like tue impressions WHICH every
traveller q feeling las eyPe fenced, in travelling
over this prairie in sumner All that he has head
about the rank luxuiiance Of grass and flowers he
extent OF this immense flower garden. the noble
ness of the forests, that bound il the ene hand.
and the hoary and stupendous bluffs, that rise. a.
the eternal walls of nature. 10 limit It on the other
fall short in effect OF what he tells from sight III
the centre OF this strange, Towering solitude one
encounters this mound and the silent abode OF the
monks. The earth could not have furnished them
With place more 10 keeping with their profession
and ayo~ed objects. In the midst Of the Ameri
ca7 bottom perhaps the most fertile spot on the
globe, e1erting its eyhau-tless fertility only in the
projection If dense forests. or the useless luyuti-
ance o. grass and flowers all il view Of their dwell
i.ag i forest, or prairie. A few dreaming old I
men vowed to perpetual silence. apparently 5eong
ing more to another world, than this. seat them /
selves on enc Of these lonely and xplicable mon
lncats u generations that are now no more and
- taey may never speak 10 each other they are
compelled to hold all their converse with this soll-
'1de and these tam6s OF the desert. No noise I
itslsos ITEM by day Of by night. but the counties,
cApin5s u grasshoppets. hootn.s Of owls, how
l...- Of wolves. the winds sw eeping over the
Grass q the p!aries.