smooth in water, and sand, to a very considerable depth, more than fifty feet at least. The outside of the walls is about five or six feet in height now; on the inside, the ditch is at present gener ally not more than fifteen feet. They are disappearing before us daily, and will soon be gone. The walls of the square fort are, at this time, where left standing, about ten feet in height. There were eight gate-ways, or openings, leading into the square fort, and only one into the circular fort. Before each of these openings was a mound of earth, perhaps four feet high, forty feet perhaps in diameter at the base, and twenty or upwards at the summit. These mounds, for two rods or more, are exactly in front of the gate-ways, and were intended for the defence of these openings. As this work was a perfect square, so the gate-ways and their watch towers, were equidistant from each other. These mounds were in a perfectly straight line, and exactly parallel with the wall. p. 141, 142.

The extreme care of the authors of these works to protect and defend every part of the circle is no where visible about this square fort. The former is defended by two high walls; the latter by one. The former has a deep ditch encircling it; this The former could be entered at one place only; this at eight, and those about twenty feet broad. The present town of Circleville covers all the round and the western half of the square fort.' p. 143.

has none.

The walls of this work vary a few degrees from north and south, east and west; but not more than the needle varies, and not a few surveyors have, from this circunstance, been impressed with the belief that the authors of these works were acquainted with astronomy. What surprised me on measuring these forts, was the exact manner in which they had laid down their circle and square; so that after every effort, by the most careful survey to detect some error in their measurement, we found that it was impossible, and that the measurement was much more correct than it would have been in all probability, had the present inhabitants undertaken to construct such a work. Let those consider this circumstance, who affect to believe that these antiquities were raised by the ancestors of the present race of Indians.

p. 144. Our author describes also the works at Paint Creek, which are less regular in their structure, and enclose elevations of an elliptical, a triangular, and a crescent form; those at Portsmouth; those on the Little Miami; and those at Cincinnati; but, as a just idea of them, and indeed of those which we have mentioned above, is dependent upon the draw

ings to which a constant reference is made, we must refer our readers to the book itself, assuring them that it will highly gratify their curiosity and reward their examination.

We have next a description of the mounds, which are of three kinds: 1. tumuli of earth; which appear to be cemeteries, or monuments in honour of the illustrious dead: 2. conical piles, principally of stone; which might have been altars, or formed for sacred purposes: and 3. pyramidical mounds; which are supposed to have been observatories, or watch-towers.

The mounds, or tumuli of earth, are of various altitudes and dimensions, some being only four or five feet in height, and ten or twelve feet in diameter at their base; whilst others, as we travel to the south, rise to the height of eighty and ninety feet.

They are generally, when completed, in the form of a cone. Those in the north part of Ohio are inferior in size, and fewer in number, than those along the river. The mounds are believed to exist from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Alleghanies in the east; from the southern shore of lake Erie to the Mexican gulf; and though few and small in the north, numerous and lofty in the south, yet exhibit proofs of a common origin.' p. 167.

6

In the subsequent pages, Mr. Atwater describes a variety of articles found in the mounds, and accompanies his description with drawings; and they clearly prove that the constructors of these works possessed a knowledge of some of the arts, particularly of making vases of calcarious breccia,' of forming what seems to have been armour of copper, and of fabricating various implements of materials, of forms, and for purposes unknown to any tribe of the Indians who have inhabited that region for at least the three last centuries. We think it highly important that all such relics should be carefully preserved in some public museum; as a comparison of them with those taken from the northern Asiatic mounds, and those from the Teocalli at Mexico, will show whether those who constructed the works on the Ohio and the Mississippi were descendants of the Tartay or Scythians and progenitors of the Mexicans, or rather of their predecessors, the original inhabitants of Peru.

Mentioning the mounds of stone, Mr. Atwater says,

These works are, like those of earth, in form of a cone, composed of small stones, on which no marks of tools are visible. In New Series. No. 6.

32

them some of the most interesting articles are found, as urns, ornaments of copper, heads of spears, &c. of the same metal, as well as medals of copper, and pickaxes of hornblend; several drawings of which may be seen in this volume.' p. 184.

This department of his investigations our author closes with the following remarks:

A careful survey of the abovementioned works would probably show that they were all connected, and formed but parts of a whole, laid out with taste.

Following the river Ohio downwards, the mounds appear on both sides, erected uniformly on the highest alluvions along that stream. Those at Marietta, Portsmouth, and Cincinnati, are noticed elsewhere. Their numbers increase all the way to the Mississippi, on which river they assume the largest size.

These tumuli, as well as the fortifications, are to be found at the junction of all the rivers along the Mississippi in the most eligible positions for towns, and in the most extensive bodies of fertile lands. 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.' p. 188.

"One of the mounds, nearly opposite St. Louis, is eight hundred yards in circumference at the base, 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 in the following places, viz. at St. Louis, one with two stages, another with three; at the mouth of the Missouri; at the mouth of Cahokia river in two groups; twenty miles below, two groups also, but the mounds of a smaller size; on the bank of a Take, formerly the bed of a river, at the mouth of Marameck, St. Genevieve; one near Washington, Mississippi state, of one hundred and forty-six feet in height; at Baton Rouge, and on the bayou Manchac; one of the mounds near the lake is composed chiefly of shells: the inhabitants have taken great quantities of them for lime.

around.

The mound on Black river has two stages and a group 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, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois. On the plains between the Arkansas 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 southwestern direction, until we reach the Mississippi, where they are lofty and magnificent' p. 189.

We see a line of ancient works, reaching from the south side of lake Ontario across this state, to the banks of the Mississippi, along the banks of that river, through the upper part of the province of Texas, around the Mexican gulf, quite into Mexico-increasing in number, improving in every respect as we have followed them; and showing the increased numbers and improved condition of their authors, as they migrated towards the country where they finally settled.

"It is true, that no historian has told us the names of the mighty chieftains, whose ashes are inurned in our tumuli; no poet's song has been handed down to us, in which their exploits are noticed. History has not informed us who were their priests, their orators, their ablest statesmen, or their greatest warriors. But we find idols that shew that the same gods were worshipped here as in Mexico-The works left behind them are exactly similar to those in Mexico and Peru; and our works are continued quite into that country.' p. 248.

In some of the nitrous caves in Kentucky exsiccated bodies have been found, which are called mummies,' though it does not appear that they were ever embalmed. Of these the following account is given;

The mummies have generally been found enveloped in three coverings; first in a coarse species of linen cloth, of about the consistency and texture of cotton bagging. It was evidently woven by the same kind of process, which is still practised in the interior part of Africa. The warp being extended by some slight kind of machinery, the woof was passed across it, and then twisted every two threads of the warp together, before the second passage of the filling. This seems to have been the first rude method of weaving in Asia, Africa, and America. The second envelope of the mummies is a kind of net work, of coarse threads, formed of very small loose meshes, in which were fixed the feath ers of various kinds of birds, so as to make a perfectly smooth surface, lying all in one direction. The art of this tedious, but beautiful manufacture, was well understood in Mexico, and still exists on the northwest coast of America, and in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In those isles it is the state or court dress. The third and outer envelope of these mummies is either like the one first described, or it consists of leather sewed together.' p. 231.

It is but justice to say, that the active, zealous, and indefatigable exertions of Mr. Atwater in collecting the materials which compose the principal part of the volume before us, and in obtaining such accurate measurements and delineations, do him much honour. He has furnished information respecting these wonderful structures, which is more satisfactory than has ever before been given to the public; and his labours are particularly valuable and meritorious, because the antiquities which he has so minutely and accurately described are constantly mouldering away, and every year becoming more and more indistinct; and, as the forests are cleared, settlements made, and the land cultivated, they will one after another be levelled and obliterated.

The latter part of the volume consists of an account of the present state of the Indian tribes inhabiting the Ohio,' by John Johnston Esq. United States agent for Indian affairs; Conjectures respecting the ancient inhabitants of North America,' by Moses Fiske Esq.; Antiquities and Curiosities of Western Pennsylvania.' by President Alden; • Communications,' by Dr. S. Mitchill; Description of a remarkable cave in Kentucky,' by J. H. Farnham; An account of the exsiccated body, or mummy, found in a cave, by Charles Wilkins Esq.; and a very interesting account of the Caraibs who inhabited the Antilles,' by William Sheldon Esq. of Jamaica.

ART. XIII.-Memoires Historiques sur la vie de M. Suard, sur ses écrits, et sur le 18me Siècle, par Dominique Joseph Garat. Paris, 8vo, 2 vols. 1820.

THIS, we are sorry to say, is a very indifferent work. The plan is bad, and the execution not much better. We cannot, in conscience, recommend it to our readers; but having taken the trouble to go through it ourselves, we hope to be able to turn the time and labour employed upon it to some account, by extracting a part of the more instructive and amusing passages. The least valuable book generally contains something worth attention, as it has been observed, that some fruit may be gathered from the conversation of the dullest companion.

The author of this work sustained a conspicuous part in